A Culturally-Responsive Maker Program Designed to Develop the STEM Interest, Self-Efficacy and Science Identity of Black Girls

黑人女孩创造（BGC）是一个程序，使用制造者教学法，社会历史（即，黑人女性在STEM中的贡献）、具有文化敏感性的教学法以及指导黑人女孩参与STEM。 对于该项目来说，文化响应性制造在操作上被定义为使用文化知识和制造者技术来创建，设计和生产与特定概念，主题或人物相关的文物。 该项目将进行一项可行性研究，调查参与BGC如何影响参与者的STEM兴趣，STEM信心以及种族和性别身份。在该项目中，参与者将发现黑人女性如何在STEM领域产生影响，并将学习如何以数字方式创建与其发现相关的文物/可穿戴艺术。大约120名来自服务不足社区的6-8年级（8组，每组15名参与者）的中学女生将被招募参加这项为期两年的研究。每个小组将在8周内每周开会3小时。这项研究的教学材料将在网上免费提供，以便他们可以适应和使用在其他正式和非正式的教育机构，寻求获得兴趣和获得STEM学习黑人女孩和妇女。前和后测试，准实验设计将用于研究该计划对参与者的自我效能感，种族认同和性别认同的影响。滞后回归模型，控制学生的年龄，种族/民族，和调查前的分数将被用来检查在四个结果中的每一个的增长。一旦各组中的所有参与者都完成了BGC，所有组的数据将被合并以增加功效，从而检测调查前和调查后评分的统计学意义差异。此外，代表出勤率和项目参与度的变量将被输入模型，以检查高度参与BGC编程的学生是否在四个结果中表现出更多的增长。 定性数据将来自学生的日记条目以及焦点小组访谈。每周期刊将用于收集有关参与者在整个计划中展开的背景和经验的数据。半结构化的焦点小组将围绕从计划活动中获得的技能和知识的有用性，与同行和计划工作人员的重要经验，了解黑人女性STEM祖先的机会，以及学习如何制作数字制造的文物。NVIVO是一个计算机软件程序，将被用作一种工具，以支持分析从期刊和焦点小组叙述中产生的丰富的基于文本的信息。这一可行性研究项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在（a）推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解;（B）提供多种途径，以扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与;（c）推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估;（d）促进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究。以及（d）让所有年龄段的公众在非正式环境中学习STEM。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。

Black Girls Create (BGC) is a program that uses maker pedagogy, social history (i.e., Black women’s contributions in STEM), culturally responsive pedagogy, and mentoring to engage Black girls in STEM. For the project, culturally responsive making is operationally defined as the use of cultural knowledge and maker technologies to create, design, and produce artifacts that are related to a particular concept, theme, or person. The project will conduct a feasibility research study that investigates how engagement in BGC affects participants' STEM interest, STEM confidence, and racial and gender identities. In the project, participants will discover how Black women have made an impact in STEM fields and will learn how to digitally create cultural artifacts/wearable art related to their discoveries. Approximately 120 middle school girls in grades 6-8 (8 groups of 15 participants each) from underserved neighborhoods will be recruited for participation in this two-year study. Each group will meet for 3 hours per week over an 8-week period. Instructional materials from this research will be made freely available online so that they can be adapted and used at other formal and informal educational institutions that seek to garner interest and access to STEM learning for Black girls and women.A pre- and post-test, quasi-experimental design will be used to research the program’s influence on participants’ self-efficacy, racial identity, and gender identity. Lagged regression models that control for students’ age, race/ethnicity, and pre-survey scores will be used to examine growth in each of the four outcomes. Once all of the participants in the groups have completed BGC, data from all groups will be combined to increase power and thereby detect statistically meaningful differences in pre- and post-survey scores. In addition, variables representing attendance and program engagement will be entered into the model to examine whether students who are highly engaged in BGC programming exhibit more growth in the four outcomes. Qualitative data will be derived from students' journal entries as well as focus group interviews. Weekly journals will be used to gather data about the context and experiences of participants as they unfold throughout the program. Semi-structured focus groups will center around the usefulness of skills and knowledge gained from the program activities, significant experiences with peers and program staff, the opportunity to learn about Black women STEM progenitors, and learning how to make digitally fabricated artifacts. NVIVO, a computer software program, will be used as a tool to support the analysis of the rich, text-based information resulting from the journals and focus group narratives. This feasibilty research project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to (a) advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; (b) provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; (c) advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and (d) engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments.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.