Collaborative Research: RAPID: Integrating Culturally Relevant Project-based AI Learning into High School STEM Education

人工智能（AI）的指数级增长对未来人工智能劳动力的发展产生了巨大的需求。目前存在几个关键挑战，阻碍了将人工智能广泛纳入K-12课程，包括缺乏人工智能教师发展和K-12人工智能教育的综合教学框架。该项目旨在通过实施和研究与文化相关的基于项目的人工智能集成学习框架，让来自北达科他州和阿拉巴马州南部的高中生参与人工智能的学习，这两个地理区域拥有大量历史上边缘化群体的人口。该框架将人工智能学习与学生在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）课程中的学习经验联系起来，培养他们跨学科解决问题的能力。为了培养学生对人工智能的个人兴趣，他们的学习是在个人经历的背景下进行的。这项建议是在回复致同事信（DCL）后收到的：快速加速正式和非正式环境中K-12教育中的人工智能研究（NSF 23-097），由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持建立对实践、项目要素、背景和过程的理解，有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣。该项目包括两个部分：(1)高中教师培训和(2)教师课堂实施。17位教师将参加小组和个人实践、沉浸式研讨会、反思和讨论以及演讲。研究人员将开展考察教师培训成果的混合方法设计研究。在研究人员的支持下，教师将在北达科他州和阿拉巴马州南部自己的高中开发和教授生物和微积分预科的AI-STEM综合课程。多模态数据收集和分析将用于研究关于学生解决问题能力、跨学科知识使用和课堂参与的感知、认知和动觉过程，以及这些过程如何影响学生的STEM和AI学习和兴趣发展。这项研究具有重大的潜力，有助于我们了解如何有效地支持历史上被边缘化的学生对人工智能的兴趣和学习。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。

The exponential expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) has created a significant demand on future AI workforce development. Several key challenges exist hindering the widespread incorporation of AI into K-12 curricula, including the lack of teacher development in AI and a comprehensive pedagogical framework for K-12 AI education. This project aims to engage high-school students from North Dakota and southern Alabama, two geographical areas with large populations from historically marginalized groups, in the learning of AI by implementing and examining a culturally relevant project-based AI-integrated learning framework. The framework connects AI learning with students' learning experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes, fostering the growth of their interdisciplinary problem-solving skills. To develop students' individual interest in AI, their learning is situated within the context of personal experiences. This proposal was received in response to the Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Rapidly Accelerating Research on Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education in Formal and Informal Settings (NSF 23-097) and funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.The project includes two components: (1) training of high-school teachers, and (2) teachers' classroom implementation. Seventeen teachers will participate in small group and individual hands-on practices, immersive workshops, reflection and discussion, and presentations. Researchers will carry out mixed-method design research examining teacher training outcome. With scaffolding and support from researchers, teachers will develop and teach AI-STEM integrated lessons in biology and pre-calculus at their own high schools in North Dakota and southern Alabama. Multimodal data collection and analysis will be used for researching the perceptual, cognitive, and kinesthetic processes about students' problem-solving skills, interdisciplinary knowledge use, and classroom participation, as well as how these processes affect students' STEM and AI learning and interest development. This research has significant potential to contribute to our knowledge on how to effectively support historically marginalized students' interest in and learning of AI.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.