Iterative Improvement of a Program for Building Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible Large-scale (IDEAL) Participatory Science Projects

许多科学调查需要来自多个地点的数千人参与，以分享他们的观察和当地知识，这些共同产生了否则无法获得的发现。这些大规模公众参与科学研究(PPSR)项目也为公众参与科学提供了重要机会。然而，PPSR项目有一个共同的挑战：公众参与者往往在人口结构上是同质的(白人、富人和受过高等教育的人)，这限制了非正式的科学学习机会，并在种族、能力和生活经验方面在科学数据方面产生了差距。在这个项目中，两个国家参与性科学项目的研究人员和实践者将对一项名为包容性、多样性、公平、可获得性、大规模(理想)参与性科学的专业发展计划进行贝塔测试。该项目是与有色人种和/或移民的从业者和学生共同创建的，代表了一系列性别认同和性取向以及神经分化的个人，以及专门帮助STEM专业人员解决社会不平等问题的促进者。理想的计划支持从业者发展自我意识、准备、代理和资源，以支持归属感、公平性和可访问性的实践来修改他们的项目。该项目将反复测试理想的计划，并研究它是否会影响实践者随后改变项目结构的行为，以吸引历史上被排除在大型参与性科学项目之外的公众群体(例如有色人种、残疾人)的受众。这项工作由来自北卡罗来纳州立大学、邵氏大学(HBCU)、亚利桑那州立大学(一所西班牙裔服务机构)的研究人员和实践者以及两个全国公众参与的科学研究项目--奥杜邦的圣诞鸟计数(CBC)和科罗拉多州立大学的社区合作雨、冰雹和雪网络(CoRaHS)--共同领导，并由具有多样性、公平性、可及性和包容性以及种族、民族、性别和残疾方面的不同生活经验的团队成员和顾问指导。在三年的时间里，该项目将提供、迭代、并与大约180名从业者一起测试理想做法的影响，这些做法的实施将惠及大约6,000名公众参与者。这项研究将导致以证据为基础的专业发展，以支持在大规模参与性科学的非正式学习背景下实现多样性、公平性、可及性和包容性的做法。这项研究将检查测试理想计划的实践者的自我意识、准备情况、代理和新实践的实施情况。该团队将对从业者的产品进行文档分析，并在通过IDEAL计划支持的实践社区中进行话语分析。这些方法将被用来详细说明理想结构的证据(例如，它们描述的是包容还是同化？)，与预期从业者结果相关的派生结构(自我意识、准备和代理)，以及使用内容分析的额外紧急主题。回溯性的自我报告结果将探索实践者对理想培训的归因，定量比较将帮助团队开始了解不同身份群体之间的不同方面。为了确定培训对扩大PPSR参与者参与的影响，该团队将创建三个比较组：有实施资金支持的理想地点、没有实施资金支持的理想地点和没有接受过理想计划培训的任何实践者的地点。通过对大约1200名公众参与者进行事前/事后调查，该团队将能够衡量理想计划对参与者身份群体的多样性、参与者对项目的归属感以及参与者对科学学习和行为的自我效能感的影响。这一循证计划将在免费访问的博客、网站和资源中心广泛分享。研究成果将通过同行评议的期刊文章以及通过播客和双语广播节目等公共媒体传播。这一综合研究与实践项目由推进非正式STEM学习方案资助，该方案支持以下项目：(A)促进关于STEM非正式学习在公平和归属STEM中的作用的研究和实践；(B)促进STEM个人和教育的成功；(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STEM非正式学习创造和加强理论和经验基础；(F)提高社区活力；和/或(G)加强科学交流以及公众对STEM和STEM过程的参与和了解。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。

Many scientific inquiries require the participation of thousands of people across multiple locations to share their observations and local knowledge which together yield discoveries that are otherwise unobtainable. These large-scale public participation in scientific research (PPSR) projects also provide an important opportunity for public engagement in science. However, PPSR projects share a common challenge: public participants tend to be demographically homogeneous (white, wealthy, and highly educated), which limits informal science learning opportunities and produces gaps in the scientific data in terms of race, ability and lived experience. In this project, researchers and practitioners of two national participatory science projects will beta-test a professional development program called Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible, Large-scale (IDEAL) participatory science. The program was co-created with practitioners and students who are people of color and/or immigrants, representing a range of gender identities and sexual orientations and neurodivergent individuals alongside facilitators that specialize in helping STEM professionals address social inequities. The IDEAL program supports practitioners in developing self-awareness, readiness, agency, and resources to modify their projects with practices that support belonging, equity, and accessibility. The project will iteratively test the IDEAL program and study whether it can impact practitioners' subsequent behaviors to change project structures to engage an audience of groups of the public that have been historically excluded (e.g., people of color, people with disabilities) from large-scale participatory science projects. This work is led by a partnership of researchers and practitioners from North Carolina State University, Shaw University (an HBCU), Arizona State University (a Hispanic-Serving Institution), and two nation-wide public participation in scientific research projects, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) and Colorado State University’s Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), and guided by team members and advisors with expertise in diversity, equity, access, and inclusion and racially, ethnically, gender and disability diverse lived experiences.Over a three-year period, this project will provide, iterate, and test the impact of IDEAL practices with approximately 180 practitioners whose implementation will reach approximately 6,000 public participants. The research will result in evidence-based professional development to support practices for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in the informal learning context of large-scale participatory sciences. The research will examine self-awareness, readiness, agency, and implementation of new practices by practitioners who beta test the IDEAL program. The team will conduct document analyses of the practitioner products and discourse analysis among the communities of practice supported through the IDEAL program. These methods will be used to detail evidence of IDEAL constructs (e.g., do they describe inclusion or assimilation?), derived constructs related to intended practitioner outcomes (self-awareness, readiness, and agency), and additional emergent themes using content analysis. Retrospective self-reported outcomes will explore practitioner attributions to the IDEAL training, and quantitative comparisons will help the team begin to understand aspects that differ among identity groups. To determine the impacts of the training on broadening participation among PPSR participants, the team will create three comparison groups: IDEAL sites with implementation financial support, IDEAL sites without implementation financial support, and sites without any practitioners trained with the IDEAL Program. Using pre/post surveys across approximately 1,200 public participants, the team will be able to gauge the impact of the IDEAL program on diversity of participant identity groups, participants' sense of belonging to the project, and participants' self-efficacy for science learning and doing. The evidence-based program will be shared widely on freely accessible blogs, websites, and resource centers. Research findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journal articles and through public media outlets such as podcasts and a bilingual radio show.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.