Strategies: Seeding the Future of STEM researchers through emerging agricultural technologies

波士顿学院的研究人员将让高中生参与一个为期三年的路径框架，让他们参与真正的科学研究。该项目将涉及新兴的农业技术，如透明土壤（最近发现的一种行为类似土壤的水凝胶）、以大学为中心的近同伴指导模式，以及与科学家的互动。这些年轻人将学习构建和编写Raspberry Pis（学生可以用来学习编程的小型且价格实惠的计算机）的代码，以便与农学家和植物科学家分享他们的数据。这项工作的最终目标是通过进行认真、严谨的科学研究的经验，为青年进入具有强大研究技能的专上院校做好准备。在这个为期三年的项目中，青年将从事与大学水平相同的科学研究。具体来说，青年将学习：(i)构建他们将用于收集数据的工具（连接到树莓派的传感器和连接到IBM Watson软件系统提供的物联网网络基础设施的传感器），（ii）进行严格的科学调查（确定问题，以及查找和最小化实验容器，并确定因变量与自变量），（iii）与实践科学家合作，根据他们的数据开发模型和潜在的解释。该项目将从波士顿公立学校的高中招收低收入青年，以及在科学领域代表性不足的人群中的青年，支持他们学习核心科研技能，并让他们参与构建工具，用于进行更复杂的实验。该计划不仅将培养青年参与者进行潜在科学发现的能力，而且通过辅导计划，青年领袖和导师将成为社区青年的榜样。拟议的工作有四个主要方面。首先，青年将接触到科研实验室中使用的尖端技术。其次，将组建一个由STEM职业发展专家、青年指导专家、科学家和科学教育者组成的多元化合作团队来设计拟议的工作。第三，该项目是三个协同组成部分的独特组合：(1)近同伴指导方法，(2)STEM学习，以及(3)青年目标和职业发展。与其他校外STEM项目不同的是，该项目不仅支持STEM概念的学习，还将带领年轻人踏上一段个人之旅，帮助他们发现STEM技能与实现未来职业抱负的相关性，并为他们接受高等教育做好准备。第四，年轻人将与实践科学家分享的数据有可能帮助回答植物科学中的重要问题，如植物如何对环境压力做出反应，特别是它们的根结构。该研究方法提供了一个机会来研究目的、批判意识和工作意志等概念如何影响年轻人追求STEM领域的意图。到目前为止，这些重要的结构在STEM职业发展中还没有得到认真考虑。因此，研究近同伴指导对青年探索、追求和留在STEM领域的适应性和意向性的影响，将为ITEST社区提供一个整合近同伴指导、科学研究和STEM职业发展的循证模型，以阐明青年如何成功地追求STEM领域。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Researchers at Boston College will engage high school aged youth in a three-year pathway framework that will engage the youth in conducting authentic scientific research. The project will involve emerging agricultural technologies like transparent soil (a recent discovery which is a hydrogel that behaves like soil), a near-peer and college-focused mentoring model, and interaction with scientists. The youth will learn to build and code Raspberry Pis (small and affordable computers that students can use to learn programming) to share their data with agronomists and plant scientists. The outcome goal for this work is to prepare youth to enter a post-secondary institution with strong research skills through experience in conducting careful, rigorous scientific research. Throughout the three-year project, youth will be engaged in the same type of scientific research that is occurring at the university level. Specifically, youth will learn: (i) to build the tools (sensors connected to Raspberry Pi and sensors connected to the Internet of Things web infrastructure provided by IBM Watson software system) they will use to collect their data, (ii) to carry out a rigorous scientific investigation (identifying questions, as well as finding and minimizing experimental containments, and determining dependent vs. independent variables), and (iii) to develop models and potential explanations based on their data in collaboration with practicing scientists. The program will recruit low-income youth, and youth from populations underrepresented in science from high schools in Boston Public Schools and support them in learning core scientific research skills and engage them in building the tools they will use to conduct their more complex experiments. The program will not only build the capacity of the youth participants to make potential scientific discoveries, but through the mentoring program youth leaders and mentors will become role models to youth in their community.There are four major aspects of the proposed work. First, youth will engage with cutting edge technologies being used in scientific research labs. Second, a diverse team of collaborators will be assembled consisting of STEM career development experts, Youth Mentoring experts, Scientists, and Science Educators to design the proposed work. Third, the program is a unique combination of three synergistic components: (1) a near-peer mentoring approach, (2) STEM learning, and (3) youth purpose and career development. Unlike other out-of-school STEM programs, this program will not only support the learning of STEM concepts, but it will do so by taking youth on a personal journey designed to help them discover the relevance of STEM skills for fulfilling future career aspirations, as well as preparing them for post-secondary education. Fourth, the data that youth will share with practicing scientists has the potential to help answer important questions in plant science regarding how plants, particularly their root structures, react to environmental stressors. The research approach provides an opportunity to examine how such constructs as purpose, critical consciousness, and work volition impact youths' intentions to pursue a STEM field. To date, these important constructs have not been seriously considered in STEM career development. Thus, the research on the impact of near-peer mentoring and youths' adaptability and intentionality to explore, pursue, and stay in STEM fields will provide the ITEST community with an evidence-based model integrating near-peer mentoring, scientific research, and STEM career development to elucidate how youth may successfully pursue a STEM field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.