Virtual Education Research in STEM Academy

REU Site奖将支持36名学生在2023年至2026年夏季进行为期9周的培训。学生将在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)和社会科学的背景下从事以学科为基础的教育研究(DBER)领域的本科生研究。该项目名为“STEM学院的虚拟教育研究”，是一个特意设计的虚拟REU项目，包括每年暑期开始和结束时为期一周的现场体验。教师和近乎同行的导师团队将在一系列DBER研究项目上与学生合作，并提供学习理论、公平和包容、定性和定量方法以及研究和沟通技能方面的培训。VERSA的主要目标是为美国各地的本科生提供一个机会，通过以各种STEM学科为基础的教育研究，参与大学STEM教育的研究和转化。通过这样做，主要研究人员的目的是增强学生对科学教与学的思考，他们的定性和定量DBER技能和科学过程技能，参与者对科学社区的归属感，以及他们对与研究相关的职业的兴趣。此外，项目组的目标是扩大和多样化DBER社区及其研究重点，从而促进更广泛的努力，使STEM教育更具包容性。VERSA的目标是通过一个三管齐下的战略招募不同的学生群体：i)瞄准现有的DBER网络以及专注于两年制大学和小规模学生的专业网络；ii)利用与少数族裔服务机构的现有伙伴关系；iii)为DBER制作和推广虚拟资源。对VERSA项目的评估将使用混合方法来评估短期结果，包括参与者的自我效能和研究兴趣以及社区意识的潜在变化；中期结果，包括参与者作为STEM从业者的身份的潜在发展及其对研究专业的理解；以及长期结果，包括持续参与DBER和教育学的潜力。项目结束后，将对学生进行跟踪，以确定学生的职业道路。学生将被要求回复通过NSF报告系统发送的自动电子邮件。欲了解更多信息，请访问https://sites.google.com/ucsd.edu/versa/home或通过发送电子邮件至mowens@ucsd.edu.联系国际组织。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。

This REU Site award will support the training of 36 students for nine weeks during the summer of 2023 – 2026. Students will be engaged in undergraduate research in the area of discipline-based education research (DBER) in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the social sciences. The project, "Virtual Education Research in STEM Academy" or VERSA, is an intentionally designed virtual REU project consisting of one week of on-site experiences at the beginning and end of each summer. Faculty and near-peer mentor teams will work with students on a range of DBER research projects and provide training in learning theories, equity and inclusion, qualitative and quantitative methods, and research and communication skills. The primary objective of VERSA is to provide undergraduate students across the United States with an opportunity to engage in the study and transformation of college STEM education through education research that is grounded in various STEM disciplines. In so doing the principal investigators aim to augment students’ thinking about teaching and learning in science, their qualitative and quantitative DBER skills and science process skills, the participants' sense of belonging to the scientific community, and their interest in research- related careers. In addition, the project team aims to expand and diversify the DBER community and its research priorities, thereby contributing to wider efforts to make STEM education more inclusive. VERSA aims to recruit a diverse cohort of students using a three-pronged strategy: i) targeting established DBER networks as well as specialized networks that focus on two-year colleges and minoritized students, ii) leveraging existing partnerships with minority-serving institutions, and iii) producing and promoting virtual resources for DBER. Evaluation of the VERSA project will use a mixed-methods approach to assess short-term outcomes including potential changes in participants’ self-efficacy and interests in research and sense of community, medium-term outcomes including participants’ potential development of their identity as STEM practitioners and their understanding of research as a profession, and long-term outcomes including the potential for ongoing participation in DBER and pedagogy. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine student career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting https://sites.google.com/ucsd.edu/versa/home or by contacting the PI at mtowens@ucsd.edu.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.