NSF INCLUDES: A Networked Improvement Community for Broadening the Participation of Black and Latino Youth in Computational Careers

为多样性而设计将建立一个由创客空间和晶圆厂实验室组成的国家网络改进社区（NIC），为黑人和拉丁裔高中生提供服务，并专门从事计算制造项目。该项目将由纽约科学馆、卡内基教学促进基金会和一个代表大学、文化组织、公司、基金会和创客运动领导者的国家领导团队领导。使用NIC方法，合作伙伴将确定最有前途的机制，以确保参与计算制作计划对参与者选择以STEM为重点的实习，中学后教育和职业道路产生重大影响。该项目将把NIC方法扩展到非正式学习社区，这需要既严格又适应建立和维持高质量非正式学习环境的机构复杂性的研究方法，它将有助于文献中关于服务不足社区的创客空间和晶圆厂实验室对STEM管道多样化的影响。该项目还将为在全国范围内发展一个更全面的计算制造项目网络铺平道路，并开展一项更全面的研究计划，这将影响创客空间和晶圆厂实验室的最佳实践，并促进人们对创客体验对年轻人未来教育经历和职业准备的价值和影响的认识。将人工制品制作与计算工具和技术联合收割机相结合的项目-是吸引代表性不足的学生参与STEM学习的有力策略。然而，参与这些计划并不一定会导致学生采取具体步骤，走向计算丰富的STEM职业，他们目前代表性不足。一系列研究表明，计算制作程序需要明确设计和解决这些学习经验的社会情感维度，以便使它们成为这些职业的垫脚石。为多样性设计将与一个为黑人和拉丁裔高中生提供高需求服务的制造商计划网络合作，以解决这些学习因素。在试点期间，领导团队将完成三项任务：（1）建立一个共同的框架，共同的衡量目标和指导方针，用于确定，招募和支持参与者制造商计划及其当地合作伙伴;（2）通过将研究工作与更广泛的国家倡议联系起来，发展和协调NIC的扩展和传播工作的能力;以及（3）招募、培训和收集关于多样性NIC设计的基线数据。

Designing for Diversity will establish a national Networked Improvement Community (NIC) of maker spaces and fab labs serving Black and Latino high school students and specializing in computational making programs. The project will be led by the New York Hall of Science, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and a national leadership team representing universities, cultural organizations, corporations, foundations and leaders in the Maker Movement. Using a NIC methodology, the partners will identify the most promising mechanisms for ensuring that participation in computational making programs has a significant impact on participants' choices to pursue STEM focused internships, post-secondary education, and career paths. The project will extend the NIC methodology into the informal learning community, which is in need of research methods that are both rigorous and accommodating of the institutional complexities of building and sustaining high-quality informal learning environments, and it will contribute to the literature on the impact of maker spaces and fab labs in underserved communities on the diversification of the STEM pipeline. The project will also pave the way for the development of a more fully-developed network of computational making programs across the country and a more comprehensive research initiative that will influence best practices in maker spaces and fab labs and foster perceptions of the value and impact of maker experiences on young people's readiness for future educational experiences and careers.The project builds on research indicating that computational making - programs that combine the making of artifacts with computational tools and techniques - is a powerful strategy for engaging underrepresented students in STEM learning. However, participation in such programs will not necessarily lead students to take concrete steps toward computationally-rich STEM careers in which they are currently under-represented. A range of research suggests that computational making programs need to explicitly design for and address the socio-emotional dimensions of these learning experiences in order for them to become stepping stones into these careers. Designing for Diversity will work with a network of maker programs serving high needs Black and Latino high school students to address these learning factors. During this pilot, the leadership team will accomplish three tasks: (1) establish a common framework, shared measurement objectives and guidelines that will be used to identify, recruit and support participant maker programs and their local partners; (2) develop and coordinate the NIC's capacity for scaling and disseminating its work by connecting the research efforts to broader national initiatives; and (3) recruit, train, and collect baseline data on the Designing for Diversity NIC.