E-Communities: Investigating how a collaboration between STEM educators and engineers impact underserved youth's participation in engineering design

电子社区是一个项目，旨在通过学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划，促进更好地理解和促进实践，提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学(STEM)领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力。该项目正在调查，将专业工程师的专业知识与STEM教育工作者的专业知识相结合，是否将使课堂数学和科学教师能够以影响学生对工程原理和职业的意识、兴趣和认同能力的方式，让学生参与工程设计过程。来自马里兰州乔治王子郡的90名中学教师和9000多名学生将参与这项研究。为准备实施电子社区，教师将进行面对面和虚拟专业发展，学习如何将这种模式适应并整合到他们现有的教学实践中。教师还将与STEM教育工作者合作，培训工程师在电子社区中扮演的角色。他们还将与来自不同职业和种族背景的工程师和STEM教育工作者一起参加社交网络活动，以支持学生参与工程设计过程。E-Community的总体任务是提高教师的能力，使学生能够充分参与STEM专上教育。这项计划将采用混合方法设计，包括事前/事后措施、调查和案例研究。这项研究正在收集参与的中学领导、教师和学生、STEM教育工作者、工程师和工程推广办公室之间合作的好处的数据，以评估工程设计模式对教师和学生的影响。通过该项目开发的产品将包括工程师和学生之间的网络广播，教师开发的突出与工程相关的数学和科学实践的课程，以及有助于中学生参与工程设计过程的教学材料。这些产品和其他信息将通过在线资源、出版物以及在数学和科学教育会议上的传播获得。

E-Communities is a project that will advance efforts to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) through the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. The project is investigating whether combining the expertise of professional engineers with that of STEM educators will enable classroom mathematics and science teachers to engage students in the engineering design process in ways that affect students' awareness, interest, and ability to identity with engineering principles and careers. Ninety (90) middle school teachers and more than 9000 students from Prince George's County, Maryland will participate in the study. To prepare for the implementation of E-Communities, teachers will engage in face-to-face and virtual professional development to learn how to adapt and integrate this model into their existing instructional practices. Teachers will also collaborate with STEM educators to train engineers for their roles in E-Communities. They will also participate in social network activities with engineers and STEM educators from diverse careers and ethnic backgrounds to support student engagement in the engineering design process. The overall mission of E-Communities is to increase teachers' ability to prepare students to participate fully in STEM careers at the post-secondary level.This project will use a mixed-method design that consists of pre/post measures, surveys, and a case study. The study is collecting data on the benefits of collaborations among participating middle school leaders, teachers, and students; STEM educators; engineers; and engineering outreach offices to assess the influence of the engineering design model on teachers and students. Products developed through this project will include web broadcasts between engineers and students, teacher-developed lessons that highlight engineering-related mathematics and science practices, and instructional materials useful in engaging middle school students in the engineering design process. Access to the products and other information will be available through online resources, publications, and dissemination at mathematics and science education conferences.