"STEM Fluency": Expanding the Effectiveness, Relevance, Equity, and Accessibility of Online Learning of Essential STEM Skills

“STEM 流畅性”：扩大 STEM 基本技能在线学习的有效性、相关性、公平性和可及性

• 批准号: 2235621
• 负责人: Andrew Heckler
• 金额: $ 59.95万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2235621&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STEM; Fluency; Expanding; Effectiveness; Relevance

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving students' mastery of critical STEM skills in introductory physics courses. Students often struggle with relatively basic STEM skills used in introductory physics, such as algebra, trigonometry, and vector math, which are necessary for success in STEM majors. This project aims to address this issue by expanding "STEM Fluency," an existing online learning application that helps students become more fluent with such critical skills. Instructors have already used "STEM Fluency" with over 20,000 physics students at Ohio State University and have shown that it significantly improves students' accuracy and speed in basic introductory physics skills there. This project will take the next step. Using education research methods, the investigators will expand "STEM Fluency" to reach more students at more universities and community colleges and will create more content to cover both semesters of the introductory physics sequence. This work will help a broader range of students across the country -- including students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), students at community colleges, students with less STEM preparation, and students with disabilities -- to be successful in university-level introductory physics, which is a key gateway course for many STEM careers.The overall aim of the project is to improve, expand, assess, and document the effectiveness of online mastery learning of basic STEM skills, via the "STEM Fluency" platform, for more diverse contexts, populations, and content material. The project's goals include (1) implementing "STEM Fluency" with new populations of students in different institutional settings (including South Carolina State University, Hampton University, Columbus State Community College, and several regional campuses of Ohio State University); (2) expanding the platform's content to serve second-semester physics courses and to incorporate effective practices from cognitive psychology and discipline-based education research; (3) improving the accessibility of the platform and the materials; and (4) collecting and analyzing data on students' performance and motivational factors and using that data to iteratively improve the platform and materials. The expanded and improved version of "STEM Fluency" will include a full two-semester set of research-based, highly effective mastery assignments for introductory algebra-based and calculus-based physics. The expansion will also include the possibility of integrating "STEM Fluency" into common learning management systems, such as Canvas and Blackboard. The NSF IUSE: EDU program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.

该项目旨在通过提高学生对物理入门课程中关键 STEM 技能的掌握来服务于国家利益。学生经常难以掌握物理入门中使用的相对基本的 STEM 技能，例如代数、三角学和向量数学，而这些技能是在 STEM 专业取得成功所必需的。该项目旨在通过扩展“STEM Fluency”来解决这个问题，“STEM Fluency”是一个现有的在线学习应用程序，可帮助学生更加流利地掌握此类关键技能。俄亥俄州立大学的教师已经对 20,000 多名物理系学生使用了“STEM Fluency”，结果表明，它显着提高了学生基本物理入门技能的准确性和速度。该项目将进行下一步。利用教育研究方法，研究人员将扩大“STEM 流利度”，以覆盖更多大学和社区学院的更多学生，并将创建更多内容来涵盖物理入门序列的两个学期。这项工作将帮助全国更广泛的学生——包括传统黑人学院和大学 (HBCU) 的学生、社区学院的学生、STEM 准备较少的学生和残疾学生——在大学水平的物理入门课程上取得成功，这是许多 STEM 职业的关键入门课程。该项目的总体目标是通过“STEM Fluency”平台改进、扩展、评估和记录在线掌握基本 STEM 技能的有效性， 更加多样化的背景、人群和内容。该项目的目标包括（1）在不同机构环境（包括南卡罗来纳州立大学、汉普顿大学、哥伦布州立社区学院和俄亥俄州立大学的几个地区校区）的新学生群体中实施“STEM Fluency”； （2）拓展平台内容，服务第二学期物理课程，并纳入认知心理学和学科教育研究的有效实践； （三）提高平台和资料的可及性； (4) 收集和分析有关学生表现和动机因素的数据，并利用该数据迭代改进平台和材料。 “STEM Fluency”的扩展和改进版本将包括一整套为期两个学期的基于研究的、高效的掌握作业，用于介绍基于代数和基于微积分的物理。此次扩展还包括将“STEM Fluency”集成到通用学习管理系统（例如 Canvas 和 Blackboard）中的可能性。 NSF IUSE：EDU 计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生 STEM 教育的有效性。通过其参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。