Equity-Centered Design of Conversational Agents for Inclusive Science Communication Education in High Schools

以公平为中心的高中包容性科学传播教育对话代理的设计

• 批准号: 2241596
• 负责人: Rossella Santagata
• 金额: $ 49.98万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 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: 2023-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2241596&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Equity; Centered; Design; Conversational; Agents

Science communication, defined as the ability to communicate scientific concepts and discoveries to broad audiences, is an important scientific literacy skill. It can promote public efforts to protect the biodiversity and livelihood of communities around the world. Yet, K-12 students have limited opportunities to engage in inclusive science communication approaches that incorporate their lived experiences and account for the diverse socioeconomic, language, and cultural backgrounds of potential audiences. This project will engage high school students from predominantly Latinx, Title I schools in Orange County, California, in an AI-guided science curriculum for learning and practicing inclusive science communication and marine biodiversity. Students will interact with conversational agents that represent different community perspectives around the local marine ecosystems. They will also collaborate with peers to train and create their own conversational agents to share views on marine conservation. Project activities aim to offer meaningful engagement to deepen students’ understanding of science communication, AI literacy, and interest in careers in AI and broader science fields. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.In partnership with Crystal Cove Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit in Orange County, California, the project will invite students, formal and informal educators, community members, and marine scientists to co-design the conversational agents’ interface and exchange. The project team will interview additional community members to integrate their perspectives to refine the agents’ dialogues. 90 students in grades 9-11 will engage in the AI-guided curriculum. Researchers in STEM education and education technologies from University of California, Irvine and Utah State University will explore research questions surrounding Equitable Partnership and Learning including (1) How can the co-design and implementation of conversational agents with informal educators, community partners, and students be facilitated in equitable, collaborative ways?, (2) How does the AI-integrated curriculum support inclusive science communication about environmental systems, interest in STEM careers, and AI literacy?, and (3) What instructional adaptations do teachers make to facilitate these learning outcomes? The project will draw from equity-centered research-practice partnership and design tension frameworks to answer research questions around how to facilitate equitable design work and adapt the curriculum in instruction. Regression analyses will be used to test the hypothesis that students significantly improve in science communication, interest in STEM careers, and AI literacy, as indicated by pre- and post-assessments. The outcomes of this work include (1) an innovative AI-integrated high school curriculum around inclusive science communication, (2) co-design principles to collaborate with community members to develop the technology, and (3) a student-constructed language corpus of conversations to train future conversational agents in STEM contexts. The research takes important advancing steps in the emerging field of AI-integrated education supporting diverse K-12 populations to deepen scientific and AI literacy.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.

科学传播是一种重要的科学素养技能，是将科学概念和科学发现传达给广大受众的能力。它可以促进公众努力保护世界各地社区的生物多样性和生计。然而，K-12学生参与包容性科学传播方法的机会有限，这些方法结合了他们的生活经验，并考虑到潜在受众的不同社会经济，语言和文化背景。该项目将吸引来自加州橙子县主要是拉丁裔的第一类学校的高中生参与人工智能指导的科学课程，以学习和实践包容性科学传播和海洋生物多样性。学生将与代表当地海洋生态系统不同社区观点的对话代理进行互动。他们还将与同行合作，培训和创建自己的对话代理人，以分享对海洋保护的看法。项目活动旨在提供有意义的参与，加深学生对科学传播，人工智能素养的理解，以及对人工智能和更广泛科学领域职业的兴趣。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划元素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣。加州橙子县的一个非盈利环境组织，该项目将邀请学生、正式和非正式的教育工作者、社区成员和海洋科学家共同设计对话代理的界面和交换。项目团队将采访更多的社区成员，整合他们的观点，以完善代理人的对话。9-11年级的90名学生将参加人工智能指导的课程。来自加州大学欧文分校和犹他州州立大学的STEM教育和教育技术研究人员将探讨围绕公平伙伴关系和学习的研究问题，包括（1）如何以公平，协作的方式促进与非正式教育工作者，社区合作伙伴和学生的对话代理的共同设计和实施？，(2)人工智能综合课程如何支持关于环境系统的包容性科学传播，对STEM职业的兴趣和人工智能素养？（3）教师在教学上作了哪些调适以促进这些学习成果？该项目将借鉴以公平为中心的研究实践伙伴关系和设计张力框架，以回答围绕如何促进公平设计工作和适应教学课程的研究问题。回归分析将用于测试学生在科学交流，STEM职业兴趣和AI素养方面显着提高的假设，如前和后评估所示。这项工作的成果包括：（1）围绕包容性科学传播的创新人工智能集成高中课程，（2）与社区成员合作开发技术的共同设计原则，以及（3）学生构建的对话语言语料库，以训练未来STEM背景下的对话代理。该研究在人工智能整合教育的新兴领域迈出了重要的前进步伐，支持不同的K-12人群加深科学和人工智能素养。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。