Side by Side: Youth-Authored Art-Science Exhibits to Broaden Participation in Climate Communication

这个项目建立在一个由美国国家科学基金会资助的项目上，该项目让年轻人参与艺术科学体验的创造，利用生物学和候鸟的经历作为交流气候变化影响的一种手段。该项目在提高参与者的科学身份、与自然的联系以及对环境行动的效能感方面取得了初步成功，这启发了当前项目的目标，即研究这种以青年为主导的气候交流对其他年轻学习者的影响。丹佛都会区的高中生将参加一个为期10天的夏季强化项目，他们将在同行导师和领域科学家的指导下研究候鸟，以更好地了解鸟类生物学如何与不断变化的当地环境特征相交叉，并将他们对STEM的理解转化为跨学科的艺术科学展览，这将吸引k -4年级的学习者。展览将包含青年设计的混合材料，旨在让观众第一手了解气候变化对鸟类及其迁徙的影响。这些由年轻人创作的互动式展品将被设计成可运输的树干，与美洲环境保护组织的世界候鸟日活动合作，这些树干将被送到美洲各地候鸟迁徙的非正式学习地点，当这些物种将在这些地点时。巡回展览将帮助青年创作者和青年观众了解当地栖息地及其变化如何成为移民和气候变化等更大的全球科学现象的一部分。该项目邀请本科生近同伴导师、高中生和研究人员设计和实施一项参与式行动研究，研究共同设计过程和展品对目标受众（k -4年级学习者）的影响。使用这种方法的目的是确保不同青年参与者的声音、兴趣和观点影响展览本身以及研究设计。目前，为非主流受众制作或由非主流受众制作的气候变化信息缺乏，因此该项目有意与拉丁女性认同青年和不认同传统性别角色的青年合作。青年创作者将参与共同设计数据收集方法，该方法将与丹佛植物园的k -4年级游客一起使用，采用混合方法定性方法，如实地观察，焦点小组讨论和创造性的嵌入式数据收集（例如，将互动体验内置到展品的数字方面）。从这项研究中产生的数据将允许混合代际团队深入了解青年设计的展品对k -4年级学习者的影响以及如何影响。共同设计工作对青年创作者的影响将通过前后科学认同调查、研究人员观察和焦点小组讨论来评估。这项工作的智力价值在于了解非主导群体的学习者如何通过体验由近同龄人设计的气候传播展览而受到影响，以及参与创建评估这种影响的模型。研究结果将通过一系列科学教育、非正式科学教育和气候传播论坛进行传播。在丹佛自然与科学博物馆以及美洲各地的非正式学习场所展示互动树干的计划对学习者产生了更广泛的影响。该整合研究与实践项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划支持以下项目：(a)促进研究和实践，考虑非正式STEM学习在STEM公平和归属方面的作用；(b)促进个人和教育在STEM方面的成功；(c)促进公众参与科学发现；(d)培养对STEM职业的兴趣；(e)为有效的非正式STEM学习创造和加强理论和经验基础；(f)改善社区活力；及/或(g)加强科学传播和公众对STEM和STEM过程的参与和理解。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 project builds on an NSF-funded program which engaged youth in the creation of art-science experiences that use the biology and the experiences of migratory birds as a means for communicating the impact of a changing climate. The preliminary success of this program at increasing participants' science identity, connectedness to nature, and feelings of efficacy about environmental action inspired the current project's goal of studying the impact of this youth-led climate communication on other young learners. High school-aged youth in the Denver Metro Area will be engaged in a 10-day summer intensive program where they will be guided by near-peer mentors and domain scientists in studying migratory birds to better understand how bird biology intersects with changing local environmental characteristics, and in translating their STEM understanding into interdisciplinary art-science exhibits that will engage K-4th grade learners. The exhibits will contain a mix of youth-designed materials intended to give audiences a firsthand understanding of the impact of a changing climate on birds and their migrations. The youth-created interactive exhibits will be designed to fit into shippable trunks which, in partnership with the Environment for the Americas' World Migratory Bird Day events, will be sent to informal learning locations across the Americas where the migratory species travel, at times when the species will be in those locations. The traveling exhibits will help both the youth creators and the youth audiences perceive how local habitats and changes to them are part of larger, global scientific phenomena like migration and climate change. The project engages undergraduate near-peer mentors, high school-aged students, and researchers in the design and implementation of a participatory action research study of the co-design process and the impact of the exhibits on target audiences (K-4th grade learners). The purpose of using this methodology is to ensure that the voices, interests, and perspectives of the diverse youth participants influence both the exhibits themselves as well as the research design. There is currently a lack of climate change messaging produced for, and by, non-dominant audiences, and so this project is deliberately working with Latine female-identifying youth and youth who do not identify with traditional gender roles. The youth creators will be engaged in co-designing the data collection approach that will be used with K-4th grade visitors to the Denver Botanic Gardens, pulling from mixed-methods qualitative approaches such as field observations, focus group discussions, and creative embedded data collection (e.g., interactive experiences built into the digital aspects of the exhibits). Data generated from this study will allow the mixed-generational team to gain insight into what aspects of the youth-designed exhibits impact the K-4th grade learners and how. Impact of the co-design work on the youth creators will be assessed via pre/post science identity surveys, observations made by research personnel, and focus group discussions. The intellectual merit of this work rests in both understanding how learners from non-dominant groups can be impacted by experiencing climate communication exhibits designed by near-peers, and in the participatory creation of a model for assessing that impact. Results will be disseminated via a range of science education, informal science education, and climate communication forums. Broader impacts on learners derive from the plans to exhibit the interactive trunks at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science as well as informal learning locations across the Americas. This Integrating Research and Practice project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports projects that: (a) contribute to research and practice that considers informal STEM learning's role in equity and belonging in STEM; (b) promote personal and educational success in STEM; (c) advance public engagement in scientific discovery; (d) foster interest in STEM careers; (e) create and enhance the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; (f) improve community vibrancy; and/or (g) enhance science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes.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.