Broadening identities for diverse youth in STEM through socioenvironmental problem solving

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）计划的工作，通过参与实地实践、实验室/项目创业任务和指导经验，更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。北卡罗来纳大学的这个项目为不同的中学青年和他们的老师解决了STEM的获取、机会和身份差距。项目活动整合了科学，工程和计算，以解决多方面的，具有本地和全球意义的社会环境问题，并使自己成为个人有意义和真实的学科STEM参与。其假设是，这种综合方法将加强青年与STEM相关的身份认同，拓宽他们的STEM学术和职业道路，为有意义的STEM整合提供模式，并促进教师的学习。该项目将从北卡罗来纳州的两个农村学区（伦道夫县学区和罗金厄姆县学区）招募60名中学生。这些学区将与三所中学合作，为不同的和社会经济上处于不利地位的学生群体提供服务。该项目包括研究青少年与STEM相关的身份认同的研究部分，这将：(1)确定触发和维持STEM身份认同工作的项目特征；(2)通过确定非正式STEM教育的长期、与身份相关的结果来填补文献中的长期空白；(3)提供一个更新的、经过检验的学科认同模型。该项目有助于改善北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特州的STEM学习基础设施的长期目标，使那些历史上被剥夺了丰富STEM教育的年轻人能够进入并继续走上与STEM相关的个人关系、学业成功和职业机会的道路。该项目的目标是：(1)创建、制定和完善一种教学模式，使中学生通过科学、工程和计算机来解决社会环境问题；(2)研究该模型在触发和维持青年stem相关身份和途径方面的有效性；(3)检验更新后的学科认同模型；(4)研究该计划对教师STEM专业学习的有效性。该项目包括以下主要干预策略：(a)为期两周的住宿暑期学院（SI）侧重于获得清洁水的问题，通过科学、工程和计算机进行审查。同行导师，STEM专业人士，STEM领域的本科生和毕业生，以及STEM职业顾问为SI做出贡献。参与者包括来自合作学校的60名青年和6名教师；(b)星期六学院（SAs）集中研究环境问题，将工程设计和计算结合起来。评估计划包括全面的形成性（过程）和总结性（结果）组成部分。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.This project at the University of North Carolina addresses STEM access, opportunity, and identity gaps for diverse middle school youth and their teachers. The project activities integrate science, engineering, and computing to address socio-environmental problems that are multifaceted, have local and global significance, and lend themselves to personally meaningful and authentic disciplinary STEM engagement. The hypothesis is that this integrated approach will strengthen youth's STEM-linked identities, broaden their STEM academic and career pathways, provide a model for meaningful STEM integration, and nurture teachers' learning. The project will recruit 60 middle school students from two rural school districts in North Carolina (Randolph County School district and Rockingham County School district). These districts will partner with three middle schools that serve diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged student populations. The project includes a research component to study youths' STEM-linked identities, which will: (1) identify features of the program that trigger and sustain STEM identity work; (2) fill an enduring gap in the literature by identifying long-term, identity-related outcomes of informal STEM education; and (3) provide an updated, tested model of disciplinary identity. This project contributes to a long-term goal to improve the STEM learning infrastructure in the North Carolina Piedmont so youths who have historically been denied an enriching STEM education can access and remain on pathways that lead to STEM-related personal affiliation, academic success, and career opportunities.The project objectives are: (1) create, enact, and refine a pedagogical model that engages middle school youth with socioenvironmental problems through science, engineering, and computing; (2) study the effectiveness of the model in triggering and sustaining youth's STEM-linked identities and pathways; (3) test an updated model of disciplinary identity; (4) study the effectiveness of the program for teachers' STEM professional learning. The project includes the following primary intervention strategies: (a) a two-week residential Summer Institute (SI) focuses on the problem of access to clean water, examined through science, engineering, and computing. Near-peer mentors, STEM professionals, undergraduates and graduates in STEM fields, and a STEM career counselor contribute to the SI. Participants include 60 youth and six teachers from partner schools; (b) Saturday Academies (SAs) focus on environmental problems integrating engineering design and computing. The evaluation plan includes comprehensive formative (process) and summative (outcome) components.