Design Squad Maker: Researching How to Support Upper Elementary School Children's Sustained Engagement and Participation in Engineering Design across Out-of-School Settings

这个创新发展项目是由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划，旨在推进新的方法，并以证据为基础的理解，在非正式环境中的STEM学习的设计和开发资助。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深入学习的理解。Design Squad Maker项目是WGBH公共电视台（WGBH）和纽约科学馆（NySci）的合作项目，将研究和开发工程设计项目，为如何将非正式学习空间与数字公共媒体资产相结合提供证据。该项目旨在为8 - 11岁的儿童提供无障碍的激励途径，以追求和完成雄心勃勃的，完全实现的工程设计项目。该项目将建立在WGBH现有的设计小组模型的基础上，利用媒体让孩子们参与非正式的工程活动，以及NySCI在促进儿童在博物馆环境中独特设计过程的专业知识。通过开发和研究支持儿童使用设计过程的新策略，设计小组制造商将解决工程教育和非正式学习中相对未探索的关键问题。项目研究将通过建立关于如何随着时间的推移和在科学博物馆和家庭等多种环境中维持和支持儿童设计活动的新知识，为新兴的"连接学习"文献做出贡献。 该项目借鉴了学习科学和工程教育方面的现有研究，旨在促进对博物馆、创客空间和数字技术在维持儿童工程学习方面的作用的认识。该项目将采用基于设计的研究方法，这是一个研究和开发过程，教育设计师与学习科学家合作。博物馆从业者将与研究人员和媒体开发人员合作，设计，测试和改进数字资源，促进策略和家长参与策略，以支持儿童通过整个设计过程。研究和开发过程将产生一个灵活的工具包中的数字资源和方法，将用于评估该项目在10个博物馆/创客空间的扩大潜力。该项目将进行总结性评估，评估该项目对全国各地博物馆/创客空间的儿童、家长和工作人员的预期影响。该工具包将通过国家合作伙伴在全国范围内传播，包括科学技术中心协会，创客教育，全国家庭，学校和社区参与协会以及工程教育组织。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

This Innovations in Development project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The Design Squad Maker project, a collaboration of WGBH Public Television (WGBH) and the New York Hall of Science (NySci), will research and develop engineering design projects that provide evidence for how to integrate informal learning spaces with digital public media assets. The project will be designed to provide accessible, motivating pathways for children aged 8-11 in pursuing and completing ambitious, fully realized engineering design projects. The project will build on WGBH's existing Design Squad model for using media to engage kids in informal engineering activities and NySCI's expertise in facilitating children's unique design processes in museum settings. By developing and studying new strategies for supporting children's use of the design process, Design Squad Maker will address critical issues in engineering education and informal learning that remain relatively unexplored. Project research will contribute to the emerging literature on "connected learning" by building new knowledge about how children's design activities can be sustained and supported over time and across multiple contexts, such as science museums and homes. Drawing on existing research in the learning sciences and engineering education, the project seeks to advance knowledge about the role of museums, maker spaces, and digital technology in sustaining children's learning in engineering. The project will use a design-based research approach, a research and development process whereby educational designers collaborate with learning scientists. Museum practitioners will collaborate with research staff and media developers to design, test, and improve digital resources, facilitation strategies, and parent engagement strategies to support children through an entire design process. The research and development process will result in digital resources and approaches in a flexible toolkit, which will be used when assessing the project's scale-up potential at 10 museum/maker spaces. The project will conduct a summative evaluation, assessing the project's intended impacts with children, parents, and staff at museums/maker spaces across the country. The toolkit will be nationally disseminated through national partners that include the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Maker Education, the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement, and engineering education organizations.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.