Collaborative Research, Pathways Project: Project SOS - Making Connections using the Science Of Sustainability

这个路径项目将华盛顿东部和北方爱达荷州的农村、服务不足的青年和家庭与可持续建筑设计中重要的STEM概念联系起来。该项目是帕卢塞发现科学中心（普尔曼，华盛顿州），华盛顿州立大学和爱达荷州大学的合作，与农村社区组织和企业合作。可交付成果包括：1）互动的展览原型活动; 2）团队合作学习解决问题的挑战;以及（3）带回家的材料，鼓励参与者利用他们所学到的知识来研究如何使他们的家园更加节能和可持续。该项目向青年和家庭介绍了传统上困难的热能物理概念，特别是因为它与可持续建筑设计有关。参与者将探索建筑材料及其特性如何用于控制所有三种类型的传热：传导，对流和辐射。互动展览原型与节能工程挑战相结合，参与者在合作学习团队中工作，使用从展览原型活动中学到的信息来改造模型房屋，提高其能源效率。该项目的组成部分是在帕卢塞探索科学中心试点，然后前往三个服务不足的农村/部落社区在北方爱达荷州和东部华盛顿。前端和形成性评估研究将证明这种模式是否能促进参与者对STEM主题和职业的理解和兴趣。该项目将产生有关其他伊势从业人员如何有效地将合作学习策略纳入非正式环境的信息，以提高从展览中获得的知识的可转移性，以解决现实世界的问题，特别是对农村和服务不足的观众。该项目还将为伊势领域提供：1）提高小型农村科学中心形成协作区域网络的能力的模式，这些网络利用其社区中以前未使用的资源，并为他们所服务的代表性不足的人群提供更有效的外展，以及2）将合作学习与外展展览相结合的模式，提供更丰富的积极参与经验。

This Pathways Project connects rural, underserved youth and families in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho to STEM concepts important in sustainable building design. The project is a collaboration of the Palouse Discovery Science Center (Pullman, WA), Washington State University and University of Idaho, working in partnership with rural community organizations and businesses. The deliverables include: 1) interactive exhibit prototype activities, 2) a team cooperative learning problem-solving challenge, and (3) take-home materials to encourage participants to use what they have learned to investigate ways to make their homes more energy-efficient and sustainable.The project introduces youth and families to the traditionally difficult physics concept of thermal energy, particularly as it relates to sustainable building design. Participants explore how building materials and their properties can be used to control all three types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. The interactive exhibit prototypes are coupled with an Energy Efficient Engineering Challenge in which participants, working in cooperative learning teams, use information learned from the exhibit prototype activities to retrofit a model house, improving its energy efficiency. The project components are piloted at the Palouse Discovery Science Center, and then travel to three underserved rural/tribal communities in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Front-end and formative evaluation studies will demonstrate whether this model advances participant understanding of and interest in STEM topics and careers. The project will yield information about ways that other ISE practitioners can effectively incorporate cooperative learning strategies in informal settings to improve the transferability of knowledge gained from exhibits to real-world problem-solving challenges, especially for rural and underserved audiences. This project will also provide the ISE field with: 1) a model for increasing the capacity of small, rural science centers to form collaborative regional networks that draw on previously unused resources in their communities and provide more effective outreach to the underrepresented populations they serve, and 2) a model for coupling cooperative learning with outreach exhibits, providing richer experiences of active engagement.