The Expansion of a Mobile Making Project That Engages Underserved Youth Across California in STEM

扩大移动制作项目，吸引加州各地服务不足的青少年参与 STEM

• 批准号: 2215654
• 负责人: James Kisiel
• 金额: $ 50.59万
• 依托单位: California State University-Long Beach Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2215654&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Expansion; Mobile; Making; Project; Engages

This project is expanding an effective mobile making program to achieve sustainable, widespread impact among underserved youth. Making is a design-based, participant-driven endeavor that is based on a learning by doing pedagogy. For nearly a decade, California State University San Marcos has operated out-of-school making programs for bringing both equipment and university student facilitators to the sites in under-served communities. In collaboration with four other CSU campuses, this project will expand along four dimensions: (a) adding community sites in addition to school sites (b) adding rural contexts in addition to urban/suburban, (c) adding hybrid and online options in addition to in-person), and (d) including future teachers as facilitators in addition to STEM undergraduates. The program uses design thinking as a framework to engage participants in addressing real-world problems that are personally and socially meaningful. Participants will use low- and high-tech tools, such as circuity, coding, and robotics to engage in activities that respond to design challenges. A diverse group of university students will lead weekly, 90-minute activities and serve as near-peer mentors, providing a connection to the university for the youth participants, many of whom will be first-generation college students. The project will significantly expand the Mobile Making program from 12 sites in North San Diego County to 48 sites across California, with nearly 2,000 university facilitators providing 12 hours of programming each year to over 10,000 underserved youth (grades 4th through 8th) during the five-year timeline.The project research will examine whether the additional sites and program variations result in positive youth and university student outcomes. For youth in grades 4 through 8, the project will evaluate impacts including sustained interest in making and STEM, increased self-efficacy in making and STEM, and a greater sense that making and STEM are relevant to their lives. For university student facilitators, the project will investigate impacts including broadened technical skills, increased leadership and 21st century skills, and increased lifelong interest in STEM outreach/informal science education. Multiple sources of data will be used to research the expanded Mobile Making program's impact on youth and undergraduate participants, compare implementation sites, and understand the program's efficacy when across different communities with diverse learner populations. A mixed methods approach that leverages extant data (attendance numbers, student artifacts), surveys, focus groups, making session feedback forms, observations, and field notes will together be used to assess youth and university student participant outcomes. The project will disaggregate data based on gender, race/ethnicity, grade level, and site to understand the Mobile Making program's impact on youth participants at multiple levels across contexts. The project will further compare findings from different types of implementation sites (e.g., school vs. library), learner groups, (e.g., middle vs. upper elementary students), and facilitator groups (e.g., STEM majors vs. future teachers). This will enable the project to conduct cross-case comparisons between CSU campuses. Project research will also compare findings from urban and rural school sites as well as based on the modality of teaching and learning (e.g., in-person vs. online). The mobile making program activities, project research, and a toolkit for implementing a Mobile maker program will be widely disseminated to researchers, educators, and out-of-school programs. 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 environmentsThis 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.

该项目正在扩大一个有效的移动制造计划，以在服务不足的年轻人中实现可持续的、广泛的影响。Making是一种基于设计、参与者驱动的努力，基于从做教学中学习。近十年来，加州州立大学圣马科斯分校一直在运营校外制造项目，将设备和大学生辅导员带到服务不足的社区的地点。与CSU的其他四个校区合作，该项目将沿着四个方面扩展：(A)除学校网站外，增加社区网站；(B)除城市/郊区外，增加农村背景；(C)除面对面培训外，增加混合和在线选择；以及(D)除STEM本科生外，增加未来教师作为辅导员。该项目使用设计思维作为框架，让参与者参与解决对个人和社会有意义的现实世界问题。参与者将使用低技术和高科技工具，如电路、编码和机器人技术，参与应对设计挑战的活动。一群形形色色的大学生将领导每周90分钟的活动，并担任近乎同行的导师，为青年参与者提供与大学的联系，其中许多人将是第一代大学生。该项目将极大地将Mobile Making计划从北圣地亚哥县的12个地点扩大到加利福尼亚州的48个地点，在五年的时间表内，近2000名大学辅导员每年为1万多名未得到充分服务的青年(4年级到8年级)提供12小时的节目。项目研究将检验额外的地点和计划变化是否会带来积极的青年和大学生结果。对于4至8年级的青少年，该项目将评估影响，包括对制造和STEM的持续兴趣，提高对制造和STEM的自我效能，以及更多地认识到制造和STEM与他们的生活相关。对于大学生辅导员，该项目将调查影响，包括扩大技术技能，提高领导力和21世纪的技能，以及对STEM外联/非正式科学教育的终身兴趣。将使用多种数据来源来研究扩展的Mobile Making计划对青年和本科生参与者的影响，比较实施地点，并了解该计划在具有不同学习人口的不同社区的效果。利用现有数据(出席人数、学生资料)、调查、焦点小组、制作会议反馈表、观察和实地笔记的混合方法将一起用于评估青年和大学生参与者的结果。该项目将根据性别、种族/族裔、年级水平和网站分类数据，以了解Mobile Making计划对不同背景下多个层面的青年参与者的影响。该项目将进一步比较不同类型的实施地点(例如，学校与图书馆)、学习者群体(例如，初中生与高年级学生)和促进者小组(例如，STEM专业与未来教师)的结果。这将使该项目能够在CSU校园之间进行跨案例比较。项目研究还将比较城市和农村学校现场的调查结果，以及基于教学和学习的方式(例如，面对面与在线)。移动制造计划活动、项目研究和实施移动制造计划的工具包将广泛传播给研究人员、教育工作者和校外计划。本研究项目由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划旨在：(A)促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的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。