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项目(HBCU-UP)为加强HBCU的STEM本科教育和研究提供了支持。北卡罗来纳中央大学(NC Central)的这个项目是NC Central的计算机科学和环境科学教员、Cynoure 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学教员共同合作的项目。该项目与HBCU-UP的目标一致，其努力为寻求创建和研究与STEM本科教育中代表性不足群体的参与和成功相关的新的理论驱动的模式和创新的研究提供支持。北卡罗来纳州中心的项目将研究引入基于社会公正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来自历史上被边缘化社区的学生对环境科学的参与，环境科学是STEM领域中多样性最少的领域之一。项目创新将纳入北卡罗来纳中央大学现有的门户课程(ENSC 1000：可持续地球导论)，方法是引入数据科学促进环境正义基于项目的学习(DSEJ-PBL)模块。本项目将使用混合方法研究创新是否以及如何提高对环境科学的兴趣，以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、选择和行为。将通过该项目创建的网站将存储详细的DSEJ-PBL模块以及相关的教程和讲师材料。该项目的研究成果将通过在研讨会、会议和期刊上发表的演讲向STEM和教育学术界传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.