FUSE Studios: A New, Interest-Driven Model for Engaging Youth In STEM and Career Development Through Challenges and Partnership with Industry

FUSE工作室项目寻求以有意义的方式让青年走上STEM相关职业的持续道路，并在以后的生活中参与科学。FUSE工作室围绕兴趣驱动的挑战序列(例如，机器人迷你高尔夫、MP3放大器、使用3D/CAD的移动应用程序开发珠宝设计)进行组织，涉及数字和动手活动，这些活动由真实的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)职业和实践提供信息，并以模仿计算机游戏序列的顺序连接在一起。这些挑战旨在拓宽年轻人对什么是STEM的看法，并为他们提供更明确的途径，以加深他们对STEM的兴趣，发展专业知识，并扩大对STEM可能的职业轨迹的接触。这一兴趣驱动的框架得到以下支持：(1)来自STEM行业专家的在线指导；(2)专家讨论与特定挑战相关的职业联系的点播视频剪辑；(3)涉及文物评判的个人竞赛；以及(4)工作室范围内的竞赛，根据集体成就向工作室的所有成员提供奖项。该项目征集了八个STEM组织的合作伙伴承诺，支持发展与职业相关的挑战，其中包括大小企业、非营利组织和大学研究中心。该项目目前在芝加哥地区的19个地点运营，包括图书馆、学校和社区中心，并将在2014年底扩展到更多地点。项目研究将研究参与者对挑战序列的参与度，同时考虑参与者如何参与，以及他们在这样做时学到了什么。在试点工作和初步评估结果的基础上，该项目将调查研究问题，这些问题旨在解决参与行业和大学主题的挑战序列是否以及如何影响参与者的STEM职业兴趣，以及被广泛认可的创新、适应性灵活性和面对困难时的坚持不懈的性格品质。该项目将从以下方面收集量化数据：(1)青年参与计算机记录(例如，选择具体挑战的青年人数、花费多少时间、完成多少级别)；(2)自我效能调查；以及(3)职业兴趣变化的前后调查。将通过以下方式获得定性数据：(1)微观人种学研究；(2)(在参与挑战期间和之后进行的)有组织的参与者和协调人访谈；(3)对参与者为每个挑战级别制作的人工制品的评价；(4)纵向后续行动。

The FUSE Studios project seeks to engage youth in meaningful ways on sustained pathways towards STEM-related careers and involvement in science in later life. FUSE Studios are organized around sequences of interest-driven challenges (e.g., robot mini-golf, MP3 amplifier, mobile app development jewelry design using 3D/cad) involving both digital and hands-on activities that are informed by authentic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations and practices, and linked together in a progression modeled after computer-game sequences. The challenges will be designed to broaden youth perspectives about what counts as STEM and provide them with more clearly marked pathways towards deepening interest, developing expertise, and broadening exposure to possible career trajectories in STEM. The interest-driven framework is supported by: (1) online mentoring from STEM industry experts; (2) on-demand video clips of experts discussing career linkages relevant to a particular challenge; (3) individual competitions that involve artifact judging; and (4) studio-wide contests that provide a prize to all members of a studio based on collective achievements. The project has enlisted partnership commitments supporting the development of career-related challenges from eight STEM organizations including large and small businesses, non-profits, and university research centers. The project currently operates in 19 Chicago-area sites, including libraries, schools and community centers, and will expand to additional sites in late 2014. Project research will study participants' engagement with challenging sequences, considering both how participants engage, and what they learn when doing so. Building upon pilot work and initial evaluation findings, the project will investigate research questions that address whether and how engagement with the industry- and university-themed challenge sequences affect participants' STEM career interests and the widely-recognized dispositional qualities of innovation, adaptive flexibility, and persistence in the face of difficulty. The project will collect quantitative data from: (1) youth participation computer records (e.g., the number of youth who choose specific challenges, how much time they spend, how many levels they complete); (2) self-efficacy surveys; and (3) pre/post surveys of changes in career interest. Qualitative data will be obtained via: (1) micro-ethnographic studies; (2) structured participant and facilitator interviews (administered during and after challenge participation); (3) evaluation of the artifacts produced by participants for each challenge level; and (4) longitudinal follow-up.