Bridging Communities with Student STEM Stories: Culturally-Responsive Strategies for Motivating STEM Engagement in Diversifying Public 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，通过开发和测试一种创新的小学STEM教育方法，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。年轻的学生将调查来自他们家庭和当地社区的故事，帮助他们更好地理解、欣赏并对STEM知识和技能如何直接影响他们的生活，并可能导致潜在的职业道路产生兴趣。利用地理信息系统（GIS）和数字制图技术，两所公立小学3-5年级的学生将开展多模式研究项目，以阐明在他们自己的社区参与STEM的例子。在他们的老师和大学研究人员的帮助下，学生将研究嵌入当地社区活动和资源中的科学和数学。学生将采访家庭和社区成员，了解他们如何在日常生活中使用数学和科学，他们的科学和数学问题的重点将因年级而异，以配合各年级和学生发展水平所强调的具体科学内容。教师将把学生的发现纳入课堂相关活动，学生将与老师和研究人员密切合作，制作多媒体作品，其中包括嵌入学生创建的图钉的互动地图，链接每个学生的STEM故事项目，包括视觉、音频文件和报告。这些文物将在全校范围内展示，以吸引家长和其他社区成员打破种族和文化鸿沟。学生的研究也将发布在学校网站上，并通过社交媒体和出版物与其他教育工作者分享。该研究和开发项目将研究与实施STEM课程模型相关的学生，教师和社区成果，该课程模型旨在将学生家庭环境构建为STEM丰富的社区。项目研究将以以下问题为指导：不同种族、民族和社会经济背景的小学社区对学生STEM故事的调查、分析和传播如何影响：(a)小学生的科学、技术、工程和数学参与度和成就结果？(b)教师对STEM及其教学实践的理解，特别是与教师的多样化学生有关的理解？(c)教育工作者、家长和学生对数学和科学在所有学生生活中的存在方式的跨文化理解？研究人员将收集成绩数据，并对教育工作者、学生和家长进行干预前和干预后的访谈，以衡量STEM动机和参与的变化，以及对不同种族和民族社区科学和数学的贡献和利用的理解。该项目的总体目标是通过STEM学习和参与加强学校、家庭、邻里和社区的联系。该项目旨在培养学生的研究和STEM技能、知识和性格；围绕STEM概念开发和加强小学教师的课程和教学曲目；并加强和扩大家长对STEM的理解，将这些学校的学生称为家的不同社区环境纳入其中。该项目将分为五个阶段：调查、社区探索、教学结合、公众参与和数字叙事。在探究阶段，学生将与教师和研究人员合作，识别和探索对他们的学校、家庭和社区有意义的STEM概念，并为下一阶段设计研究方案。在社区探索阶段，学生将采访当地社区STEM的主要代表，包括家庭成员、社区领袖和邻居，并将数据整合到交互式网络地图上，以传达他们的研究成果。在接下来的教学整合阶段，将会有一系列的研讨会来帮助学生发展STEM故事，并围绕这些故事设计教学任务和项目。在公众参与阶段和数字故事阶段，学生设计和分享与学生开发的STEM故事相关的文物，并由教师和项目助理进行分析。混合方法方法将用于分析与调查和评估数据相关的定量数据，并解释人工制品和访谈的定性分析。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。

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) by developing and testing an innovative approach to elementary school STEM education. Young students will investigate stories from their families and local communities that help them better understand, appreciate, and become interested in how STEM knowledge and skills directly impact their lives and could lead to potential career paths. Utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) and digital mapping technologies, students in grades 3-5 at two public elementary schools will conduct multi-modal research projects to illuminate examples of STEM engagement in their own communities. With the aid of their teachers and university-based researchers, students will examine the science and mathematics embedded within the activities and resources of their local communities. Students will interview family and community members about how they use mathematics and science in their daily lives, and the focus of their scientific and mathematical inquiries will vary by grade level to align with the specific science content emphasized across grades and the developmental levels of the students. Teachers will incorporate student findings into class-related activities, and students, working closely with their teachers and researchers, will produce multimedia artifacts that include an interactive map embedded with student-created pins linking each student's STEM story project, including visuals, audio files and reports. These artifacts will be showcased during school-wide presentations to engage parents and other community members in breaking down racial and cultural divides. Student research will also be posted on the school websites and shared with other educators via social media and publications. This research and development project will examine student, teacher, and community outcomes associated with implementation of a STEM curriculum model that aims to frame student home environments as STEM-rich communities. Project research will be guided by the following question: How do racially, ethnically and socio-economically diverse elementary school communities' investigation, analysis and dissemination of students' STEM Stories affect: (a) Elementary students' science, technology, engineering, and mathematics engagement and achievement outcomes? (b) Teachers' understanding of STEM and their instructional practices, particularly as these relate to teachers' diverse students? And (c) Educators, parents and students intercultural understanding of the ways in which math and science exist in all students' lives? Researchers will collect achievement data and conduct pre- and post- intervention interviews with educators, students and parents to measure changes in STEM motivation and engagement as well as understandings of the contributions and utilization of science and mathematics across separate racial and ethnic communities. The overarching goal of this project is to strengthen school, family, neighborhood, and community ties through STEM learning and engagement. The project aims to develop student research and STEM skills, knowledge, and dispositions; to develop and enhance elementary teacher curricular and instructional repertoires around STEM concepts; and to enhance and broaden parent understanding of STEM to include the diverse community contexts that students in these schools call home. The project will consist of five stages: Inquiry, Community Exploration, Pedagogical Incorporation, Public Engagement, and Digital Storytelling. During the Inquiry phase, students will work with teachers and researchers to identify and explore STEM concepts meaningful to them in their schools, homes, and neighborhoods, and design a research protocol for the next phase. During the Community Exploration phase, students will interview key representatives of STEM in the local community, including family members, community leaders, and neighbors, and consolidate data on interactive, web-based maps that convey their research findings. In the Pedagogical Incorporation phase to follow, there will be a series of workshops to help students develop STEM stories and design instructional tasks and projects centered around them. During the Public Engagement phase and the Digital Storytelling phase, students design and share artifacts related to STEM stories developed by students and analyzed by teachers and project assistants. A mixed methods approach will be used to analyze quantitative associated with survey and assessment data and to interpret qualitative analysis of artifacts and interviews.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.