Making a Difference: Engaging Young People in Engineering and Computer Science through Computational Making and Social Entrepreneurship

该项目将推进学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划的努力，以更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力的实践。该项目将实施和研究为期九个月的课后制作计划的效果，该计划适用于纽约科学馆（NYSCI）附近的13-15奥尔兹的高需求新移民。 基于从NYSCI的ITEST资助的创新研究所获得的关于参与者对计算机科学和工程作为STEM职业途径的看法的经验教训，该项目将调查：（1）该计划的具体方面如何影响参与者对计算机科学和工程的相关性，有用性和可访问性的看法。 科学和工程作为潜在的学术和职业途径，以及（2）通过与NYSCI的INCLUDES资助的校外创客空间全国网络合作，如何在未来几年大规模地适应，实施和研究创新研究所的修订版。拟议的研究将加深对因素的理解，设计和实践，鼓励和激励学生追求和坚持教育计划或途径，为他们的STEM职业做好准备。在该计划中，早期青少年移民青年将有机会深入探索与他们个人相关的社区中的社会不平等，并使用工程和计算机科学的实践和解决问题的方法来开发这个问题的潜在解决方案。 假设是，通过开发相关社区问题的解决方案，参与者对使用工程和计算机科学方法的效用的看法将增加。由于NSF的参与，该项目将能够对多个受众产生更广泛的影响。除了八个创客空间网站外，该网络还包括一个代表企业、慈善和非营利组织的国家领导团队，这些组织是创客运动的领导者。有学术动机但代表性不足的青年，包括移民青年，往往高度重视追求能够帮助他们回馈社区的职业，但这些青年中有许多人并不认为工程和计算机科学是与他们服务社区的愿望相关的职业道路。该项目将调查非正规教育机构如何组织其编程的具体功能，以帮助年轻人在他们对工程和计算机科学的相关性，有用性和可访问性的看法方面做出可衡量的转变，作为一种潜在的职业途径，可以帮助计划参与者解决对他们个人重要的社会挑战。这个研究项目将在两个实施一个为期九个月，校外时间计划，这将是通过使用计算工具来开发可持续的，高影响力的解决方案，有利于社区的理解和响应的生活质量问题的主题组织。 该项目将为来自NYSCI直接社区的50-60名青年提供服务，制作和传播方案课程材料，并通过NSF INCLUDES Designing for Diversity Network为扩大方案的实施和研究奠定基础。该项目的早期研究战略包括各种各样的定性和定量措施，以证明经修订的创新研究所模式在扩大到其他地点方面具有巨大的成功潜力。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). This project will implement and research the effects of a nine-month, after-school Making program for 13-15 year olds from the New York Hall of Science's (NYSCI) immediate neighborhood of high-need recent immigrants. Building on lessons learned from NYSCI's ITEST-funded Innovation Institute on participant perceptions of computer science and engineering as STEM career pathways, the project will investigate: (1) How specific aspects of the program influence participant perceptions of the relevance, usefulness and accessibility of computer science and engineering as potential academic and career pathways, and(2) Through collaboration with NYSCI's INCLUDES-funded national network of out-of-school Maker Spaces, how to adapt, implement and study the revised version of the Innovation Institute at scale in future years.The proposed research will deepen understandings of factors, designs and practices that encourage and motivate students to pursue and persist in education programs or pathways that prepare them for STEM occupations. In the program, early adolescent immigrant youth will have the opportunity to deeply explore a social inequity in their community that is personally relevant to them and use the practices and problem-solving approaches of engineering and computer science to develop potential solutions for this issue. The hypothesis is that by developing solutions to a relevant community issue, participant perceptions of the utility of using engineering and computer science approaches will increase. The project will be well positioned to have a broader impact on multiple audiences because of the involvement of the NSF INCLUDES Designing for Diversity Network. In addition to the eight Maker Space sites, the Network also includes a National Leadership Team that represents corporate, philanthropic and non-profit organizations that are leaders in the Maker movement.Academically motivated but underrepresented youth, including immigrant youth, often place a high priority on pursuing careers that can help them to give back to their communities, but many of these youth do not perceive engineering and computer science to be relevant career pathways in relation to their desire to serve their communities. The project will investigate how informal education institutions can organize specific features of their programming to help young people make measurable shifts in their perceptions of the relevance, usefulness and accessibility of engineering and computer science as a potential career pathway that can help program participants address the social challenges that are of personal importance to them. This research project will be grounded in two implementations of a nine-month, out-of-school-time program, which will be organized around the theme of understanding and responding to quality of life issues in NYSCI's immediate neighborhoods through the use of computational tools to develop sustainable, high-impact solutions that benefit the community. The project will serve a total of 50-60 youth from NYSCI's immediate community, produce and disseminate program curriculum materials, and lay the groundwork for a scale-up implementation and study of the program via the NSF INCLUDES Designing for Diversity Network. The project's early stage research strategy includes a rich variety of qualitative and quantitative measures to develop evidence of promise that the revised Innovation Institute model has significant potential for success in a scale-up to other sites. Measures will include video observations, digital portfolios, pre-post participant interviews, and analysis of student design solutions.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.