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

该项目建立在NSF资助的一个项目的基础上，该项目使青年参与创造艺术-科学体验，利用候鸟的生物学和经验作为传达气候变化影响的手段。该计划在增加参与者的科学身份，与自然的联系以及对环境行动的有效性的感受方面取得了初步成功，激发了当前项目的目标，即研究这种青年主导的气候传播对其他年轻学习者的影响。丹佛大都会区的高中适龄青年将参加为期10天的夏季强化计划，他们将在近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，并将他们的STEM理解转化为跨学科的艺术科学展览，吸引K-4年级的学习者。展览将包含一系列由青年设计的材料，旨在让观众直接了解气候变化对鸟类及其迁徙的影响。青年创造的互动展品将被设计成适合运输的树干，与美洲环境的世界候鸟日活动合作，将被送到美洲各地的非正式学习地点，当物种将在这些地点旅行时。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。该项目吸引了近同龄的本科生导师，高中学生和研究人员参与设计和实施共同设计过程的参与式行动研究，以及展览对目标受众（K-4年级学生）的影响。使用这种方法的目的是确保不同的青年参与者的声音，兴趣和观点影响展览本身以及研究设计。目前缺乏为非主流受众制作的气候变化信息，因此该项目有意与拉丁美洲女性识别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，该方法将用于丹佛植物园的K-4年级游客，从混合方法定性方法中提取，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，互动体验内置于展品的数字方面）。从这项研究中产生的数据将使混合世代的团队深入了解青年设计的展品的哪些方面影响K-4年级的学习者以及如何影响。联合设计工作对青年创作者的影响将通过前/后科学身份调查，研究人员的观察和焦点小组讨论进行评估。这项工作的智力价值在于理解来自非主导群体的学习者如何通过体验由近邻设计的气候通信展览而受到影响，以及参与性地创建评估这种影响的模型。将通过一系列科学教育、非正式科学教育和气候传播论坛传播成果。对学习者更广泛的影响来自于在丹佛自然和科学博物馆以及美洲各地的非正式学习地点展出互动树干的计划。这一研究与实践相结合的项目由促进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划支持的项目：（a）有助于研究和实践，认为非正式STEM学习在STEM中的公平和归属感中的作用;（B）促进STEM中的个人和教育成功;（c）促进公众参与科学发现;（d）培养对STEM职业的兴趣;（e）促进STEM职业的发展。（e）为有效的非正式STEM学习建立和加强理论和经验基础;（f）提高社区活力;和/或（g）加强科学传播和公众参与和理解STEM和STEM过程。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评估被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。

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.