Scaling up an innovative STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Mathematics) learning environment through two partnership models with industry and schools

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目的工作，以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。该项目将促进和研究在学校广泛实施科学、技术、工程、艺术/设计和数学（STEAM）学习创新的综合套件，称为FUSE工作室。FUSE是一种新的兴趣驱动的学习体验，它让学龄前儿童和青少年学习技术、STEM劳动力相关技能和跨学科技能——通常被称为21世纪技能，如自我调节、毅力、领导能力和批判性思维技能。FUSE的核心活动是一系列挑战。每个挑战都使用游戏中的升级模型，并精心设计以吸引参与者参与不同的STEAM主题和技能集。FUSE目前有几十个挑战领域，如机器人、电子、生物技术、平面设计、安卓应用开发、3D打印等。目前的项目研究表明，FUSE正在激发和发展学生对STEAM和信息和通信技术（ICT）领域的兴趣，特别是那些以前没有考虑过这些职业方向的学生。该项目产生的见解将有助于学校领导和教师为学生采用和组织经验，这些经验强调青年的兴趣、选择、与知识渊博的人互动的多样化模式，以及STEAM和ICT领域广泛的创新和异质学习机会。在这个项目的过程中，FUSE工作室将扩大到40所新学校，拥有160个新的FUSE工作室，并为16,000-21,400名新学生提供服务，特别是在资源不足的学校中代表性不足的少数民族学生。该项目将研究两种不同但互补的战略，以大大扩大FUSE的实施。这两种策略被称为地区直接参与模式和行业合作模式。研究将集中在这些策略如何成功（或不成功）导致可持续的采用和推广。每种策略都是针对当地学校和学区的不同组织条件而设计的。拟议的项目将调查传播成功干预措施的三个不同但相关的方面：(a)通过上述两种策略传播FUSE项目的过程；(b)干预措施的生命周期（进入、扎根和传播）；(c)在不同环境中采用和适应项目的方式（修改的性质及其对项目完整性的影响）。该项目将使用生物研究中的“示踪剂”概念作为分析工具，系统地跟踪不同机构如何采用、适应和维持创新（即FUSE模型）。简而言之，研究将跟随FUSE如何扎根和传播，当它被引入到不同的学校和地区。研究将以行动者理论网络（ACT）为指导，该网络提供了一套经验启发法和概念，用于追踪思想、实践和工件如何在社会背景下移动并逐渐稳定下来。研究FUSE工作室的广泛实施将产生关于如何以有影响力和可持续的方式将创新的教育、劳动力相关的技术经验大规模引入学校的一般性理解。本研究将对如何有效地扩大学习创新这一重要而未被充分研究的问题作出有价值的贡献。

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). The project will foster and research the broad implementation of an integrated suite of science, technology, engineering, arts/design, and mathematics (STEAM) learning innovations into schools called FUSE Studios. FUSE is a new kind of interest-driven learning experience that engages pre-teens and teens in learning technical, STEM workforce relevant skills and trans-disciplinary skills-often called 21st century skills, such as self-regulation, persistence, leadership, and critical thinking skills. The core activities in FUSE are a set of challenges. Each challenge uses a leveling up model from gaming and is carefully designed to engage participants in different STEAM topics and skill sets. FUSE currently has several dozen challenges areas such as robotics, electronics, biotechnology, graphic design, Android app development, 3D printing and more. Current project research demonstrates that FUSE is sparking and developing student interest in STEAM and information and communications technology (ICT) fields, especially among students who have not previously considered these career directions. The insights generated by this project will aid school leaders and teachers in adopting and organizing experiences for their students that emphasize youth interests, choice, diverse modes of interaction with knowledgeable others, and a wide range of innovative and heterogeneous learning opportunities in STEAM and ICT. Over the course of this project, FUSE Studios will double its current active reach by expanding to 40 new schools, with 160 new FUSE studios, and reach 16,000-21,400 new students, particularly underrepresented, minority students in under-resourced schools.The project will research two distinct but complementary strategies, for significantly broadening the implementation of FUSE. These two strategies are called the direct district engagement model and the industry partnership model. The research will focus on how these strategies are successful (or not) in leading to sustainable adoption and spread. Each strategy is designed to respond to distinct organizational conditions found in local schools and districts. The proposed project will investigate three distinct but related aspects of spreading a successful intervention: (a) the process of spreading FUSE project through the two strategies noted above, (b) the life cycle of an intervention (getting in, getting rooted, and spread) and, (c) the ways in which the project is adopted and adapted in different settings (nature of modifications and their impact on integrity of the program). The project will use the concept of a "tracer" from biological research as an analytic device to systematically follow how different institutions adopt, adapt and sustain the innovation (i.e., the FUSE model). In brief, the research will follow how FUSE gets rooted and spreads when it is introduced to the different schools and districts. The research will be guided by the Actor theory Network (ACT), which provides a set of empirical heuristics and concepts for tracing how ideas, practices and artifacts move and become progressively stabilized within social contexts. Studying the broad implementation of FUSE Studios will produce generalizable understandings of how innovative educational, workforce-related, technology experiences can be brought into schools in impactful and sustainable ways on a large scale. This research will make valuable contributions to the important and understudied question of how learning innovations are effectively scaled up.