Engaging Rural, Latinx Youth in an After School Program That Integrates Design Thinking, Making and Math

该项目将开发和研究一个课外项目，旨在吸引农村的拉丁裔青年通过制作来进行设计思维和数学。Making是一个以学习者为中心的环境，参与者在其中设计、创建和开发项目。拉丁裔个人在STEM劳动力中的代表性不足。该项目将在关键的中学阶段吸引拉丁裔青年，当他们做出影响自己未来的选择时。该项目将与社区成员、课后工作人员和青年共同设计，以开发和试点完成课后计划。该计划将涉及生活在美国西南部农业区的拉丁裔青年，他们的目标是发展代理和积极的身份认同，作为制造者、数学实践者和使用者，以及活跃的社区成员。他们将在非正式学习项目的背景下，从事适合发展的数学，如几何形状的体积和表面积。该计划将包括四个学期的课后项目，参与者每周有2-4个小时参与，在此期间，年轻人将设计和创造物品，以应对典型的社区挑战。每个项目都将包含较小的单元，以使不同出勤需求的青年能够参与。真正的社区问题(如干旱)和解决途径(如集水系统)将推动决策和数学计算。该项目是与塞萨尔·查韦斯基金会合作设计的，承诺在未来十年覆盖10万名青年。由于该计划可以作为其他有类似目标的人的榜样，这种影响范围有可能在许多其他社区扩大。项目研究将解决目前关于数学、制作和社区成员的文献中的一个空白。该项目将社区数学--来自社区的丰富数学知识和实践--与教育制作联系起来，以丰富对学校数学的理解，并帮助培养学生积极的数学和文化认同。该项目还将产生一种可供课外项目和研究人员使用和研究的专业发展模式，有助于为课外辅导员提供关于STEM专业发展的有限知识。该项目的研究设计将采用混合方法，其中将同时进行定量和定性数据收集和分析。两条线索的结果将在解释和报告层面结合在一起，以比较和揭示结果的趋同、差异或互补性。这项研究将在3年内分两个阶段(共同设计和试验)进行，另外还有半年的时间来开发成果的沟通。研究将解决以下问题：(1)整合社区数学、学校数学理解和设计/制作的项目的主要特征是什么？(2)辅导员如何支持青少年参与项目活动？(3)青少年通过参与项目活动学习到哪些数学内容和实践？以及(4)青年作为创造者、数学实践者和使用者以及社区成员的机构和身份如何随着该计划的参与而改变？项目研究和资源将通过塞萨尔·查韦斯基金会在全国范围内传播，并通过面向研究人员、教育工作者和项目开发人员的出版物和会议演示分享项目研究和资源。本研究项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在：(A)促进对非正式环境中STEM学习设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解；(B)为扩大获得和参与STEM学习体验提供多种途径；(C)推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估；以及(D)让所有年龄段的公众在非正式环境中学习STEM。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project will develop and research an after-school program designed to engage rural, Latinx youth in design thinking and math through making. Making is a learner-centered environment where participants design, create, and develop projects. Latinx individuals are underrepresented in the STEM workforce. The project will engage Latinx youth during the critical middle school years when young people make choices that affect their futures. The project will work with community members, after school staff, and youth as co-designers to develop and pilot the complete after school program. The program will involve Latinx youth who live in the agricultural regions of the Southwest United States with the goal of developing agency and positive identity, as makers, mathematical doers and users, and active community members. They will engage in developmentally appropriate mathematics, such as the volume and surface area of geometric shapes, within the context of informal learning projects. The program will comprise four semester-long after school projects, involving participants for 2-4 hours each week, during which time youth will design and create objects to address typical community challenges. Each project will incorporate smaller modules to enable youth with different attendance needs to participate. Real community problems (e.g., drought) and solution paths (e.g., water catchment system) will motivate the making and the mathematics. The program, co-designed in partnership with the Cesar Chavez Foundation, promises to reach 100,000 youth over the next decade. Because the program can serve as a model for others with similar goals, this reach has the potential to be expanded in many other communities. Project research will address a gap in the current literature on mathematics, making, and community membership. The project connects community mathematics—the rich mathematical knowledge and practices drawn from communities—to educational making to both enrich understanding of school mathematics and aid in developing students’ positive mathematical and cultural identities. The project will also result in a model of professional development that can be used and studied by after school programs and researchers, contributing to the limited body of knowledge of professional development on STEM making for after school facilitators. The research design for this project will follow a mixed methods approach where quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis will occur simultaneously. Results of both strands will be brought together at the interpretation and reporting level to compare and bring out the convergence, divergence, or complementarity of findings. The research will take place in two stages (co-design and pilot) over 3 years, with an additional half year for developing communications of the findings. Research will address the following questions: (1) What are the key features of projects for integrating community mathematics, school mathematics understanding, and design/making? (2) How do facilitators support the youth in engaging in program activities? (3) What math content and practices do youth learn through participation in program activities? and (4) How do youth’s agency and identity as makers, mathematics doers and users, and community members change with participation in the program? Program research and resources will be disseminated nationally through the Cesar Chavez Foundation and by sharing project research and resources through publications and conference presentations reaching researchers, educators, and program developers. This research project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to (a) advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; (b) provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; (c) advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and (d) engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.