CAREER: Developing a Participatory Model for Elementary Science for Community Change

小学生需要机会把科学看作是有意义的，与他们的生活相关的。增加这种相关性的一种方法是提供基于社区的问题和询问的学习经验，这些问题和询问是学生自己确定和进行的。这个项目的一个重要贡献是调查文化相关和基于社区的科学课程如何帮助在城市小学课堂上肯定和发展黑人学生的科学身份。该项目将与三、四、五年级的小学教师合作，创造和调查这样的学习经验。计划中的合作伙伴是底特律的一所公立特许学校。该研究将记录教师和学生如何识别和探索来自当地社区背景的科学问题，并利用他们的调查结果制定当地社区变革。该项目将开发资源，帮助教师在他们自己的社区为小学生创造类似的体验。这个项目的目标是设计公平的、文化相关的、以社区为中心的黑人小学年龄青年科学学习，并了解学习经历如何影响他们的多重身份，特别是他们对科学的倾向。这项工作使用青年参与式科学模式，让学生和教师参与到以社区为基础的科学探究循环中。青年参与式科学模式让学生参与识别基于社区的问题，利用科学探究来分析和理解这些问题，然后与更广泛的社区分享他们的发现。该项目的一个重要贡献是将这种模式从中学科学课堂推广到小学。本研究将解决以下研究问题。首先，正义和以社区为中心的科学课程如何影响城市学校黑人小学生的种族、科学和学术身份？第二，通过参与肯定身份的科学教学，黑人小学生如何将自己视为科学界的积极参与者？这项研究将包括一系列定性数据，以记录课程的设计以及学生和教师的经验。该项目包括与一所小学和黑人男性教育者联盟（一个位于底特律的社区组织）合作，共同开发和分享由此产生的科学课程。本CAREER项目由STEM教育中的种族平等项目（EDU种族平等）资助。该项目支持通过研究和实践促进STEM教育和劳动力发展中的种族平等的项目。该奖项也由探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）资助，该项目旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Elementary students need opportunities to see science as meaningful and relevant to their lives. One way to increase this relevance is with learning experiences that are grounded in community-based questions and inquiries that students identify and carry out themselves. An important contribution of this project is investigating how culturally relevant and community-based science curriculum helps to affirm and develop Black students’ science identities in an urban, elementary classroom. This project will partner with third, fourth and fifth-grade elementary teachers to create and to investigate such learning experiences. The planned partner for the collaboration is a public, charter school in Detroit. The research will document how teachers and students identify and explore science questions that are drawn from their local community context and use the results of their inquiries to enact local community change. The project will develop resources to help teachers create similar experiences for elementary students in their own communities. The goal of this project is to design equitable, culturally relevant and community-centered science learning with Black elementary-aged youth and to understand how the learning experience influences their multiple identities, specifically their disposition toward science. This work uses the youth participatory science model to engage students and teachers in the cycle of community-based scientific inquiry. The youth participatory science model engages students in identifying community-based issues, using scientific inquiry to analyze and understand those issues, and then sharing their findings with the broader community. A significant contribution of the project is the adaptation of this model from secondary science classrooms to elementary school. This research will address the following research questions. First, how does a justice and community-centered science curriculum impact the racial, science, and academic identities of Black elementary students within an urban school? Second, through engaging in identity-affirming science instruction, how do Black elementary students view themselves as active participants within the scientific community? The research will include a range of qualitative data to document the design of the curriculum and the experiences of students and teachers. The project includes a partnership with an elementary school and the Black Male Educator Alliance, a community organization based in Detroit, to develop and share the resulting science curriculum.This CAREER project is funded by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EDU Racial Equity). The program supports projects that advance racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through research and practice. This award is also funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.