Broadening Participation Research Project: Investigating the Efficacy of Data Science for Environmental Justice based PBL Modules for Improving Diversity in Environmental Science

历史上的黑人学院和大学-本科生计划（HBCU-UP）为加强HBCUs的STEM本科教育和研究提供支持。北卡罗来纳州中央大学（NC Central）的这个项目是NC Central的计算机科学和环境科学系、Cynosure Consulting的社会科学研究人员以及伍斯特理工学院的地理和生物系之间的合作项目。该项目符合HBCU-UP的目标，旨在为旨在创建和研究与STEM本科教育中代表性不足的群体的参与和成功相关的新理论驱动模型和创新的研究提供支持。NC Central的项目将研究引入基于社会正义的环境科学项目学习（PBL）模块对学生对环境科学的兴趣和专业申报的影响。该项目的目标是增加环境科学的参与，这是STEM领域中最不多样化的领域之一，来自历史上边缘化社区的学生。 该项目创新将通过引入基于环境正义项目的学习（DSEJ-PBL）模块，纳入NC中央大学现有的网关课程（ENSC 1000：可持续地球简介）。该项目将研究创新是否以及如何增加对环境科学的兴趣，使用混合方法来衡量创新的有效性及其对参与者的影响，并深入了解创新如何改变学生的信念，选择和行动。该网站将通过这个项目创建将托管详细的DSEJ-PBL模块和相关的教程和教师材料的存储库。该项目的研究成果将通过在研讨会和会议上的演讲以及在期刊上的出版物传播给STEM和教育学术界。该奖项反映了NSF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。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provides support to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. This project at North Carolina Central University (NC Central) is a collaborative project between computer science and environmental science faculty at NC Central, social science researchers at Cynosure Consulting, and geography and biology faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This project aligns with the goals of HBCU-UP in its effort to provide support for research that seeks to create and study new theory-driven models and innovations related to the participation and success of underrepresented groups in STEM undergraduate education. The project at NC Central will conduct research on the impact of introducing social justice-based environmental science project-based learning (PBL) modules on student interest in environmental science and the declaration of majors. The goal of this project is to increase the participation in environmental science, one of the least diverse STEM fields, among students from historically marginalized communities. The project innovation will be incorporated within an existing gateway course at NC Central University (ENSC 1000: Introduction to Sustainable Planet) by introducing data science for environmental justice project-based learning (DSEJ-PBL) modules. This project will study whether and how the innovation increases interest in environmental science using a mixed-methods approach to measure the efficacy of the innovation and its impacts on participants, and to provide insight into how the innovation produces changes in student beliefs, choices, and actions. The website that will be created through this project will host a repository of detailed DSEJ-PBL modules and associated tutorials and instructor materials. The research results from this project will be disseminated to the STEM and Education academic communities through presentations at seminars and conferences and publications in journals.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.