SCC: I4all (Interests for All): A Smart Socio-Technical Infrastructure to Identify, Cultivate, and Sustain Youth STEAM Interests in a Diverse Midsized American City

该项目是智能和互联社区奖。该社区是伊利诺伊州埃文斯顿的一部分，由以下主要合作伙伴组成：- EvanSTEM是一项校内/校外时间（OST）计划，旨在改善埃文斯顿在STEM方面表现不佳或代表性不足的学生的接触和参与。- McGaw YMCA由12,000个家庭组成，为20,000个人提供服务，并在安全的社区氛围中支持技术和创客空间活动（MetaMedia）。-西北大学社区教育合作办公室（OCEP），为大学和社区在研究、教学和服务方面的合作提供支持。这种伙伴关系将通过埃文斯顿所有年轻人的STEAM（科学、技术、工程、艺术和数学）兴趣开发一种新的学习参与方法。该项目名为“所有人的利益”（I4All），以两位首席研究员（pi）的现有研究成果和主要合作伙伴（EvanSTEM和MetaMedia将OCEP作为创始合作伙伴）之间的合作关系为基础。I4All还将埃文斯顿学区、OST提供商、城市和埃文斯顿西北大学作为参与者聚集在一起。特别是该项目建立在PI Pinkard的城市学习项目和共同PI Stevens的FUSE工作室项目之上。这两个项目都有明确的目标，即扩大STEAM追求的参与，这一目标通过I4All得到了显著推进。在这个项目中，I4All基础设施将使用定量指标进行评估，这些指标将告诉研究人员埃文斯顿青年是否以及在多大程度上发现和发展了他们的STEAM兴趣，以及I4All基础设施是否支持更公平地向青年分配机会。研究人员亦会就青少年兴趣发展进行深入的定性个案研究。这些纵向研究将补充参与的定量指标，并提供将用于通知I4All的变化的措施，作为PIs基于设计的实施研究方法的一部分。I4All中产生的工件包括FUSE工作室项目、软件基础设施，用于指导学生完成OST和校内活动，并为学生提供参与I4All活动的物流方面的可操作信息，以及所有利益相关者可获得的数据，以评估I4All的有效性。此外，这项研究有可能将这种模式扩展到不同的社区，利用一个社区的OST网络开始在整个学区更广泛地提供专业发展，并作为其他学区的典范。这些研究结果还可能影响当地学校官员和社区组织制定的战略和政策，即如何共同创造当地学习环境，创造一个正式和非正式学习空间支持和加强STEAM知识的生态系统。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 is a Smart and Connected Communities award. The community is part of Evanston, Illinois and is composed of the lead partners described below:- EvanSTEM which is a in-school/out of school time (OST) program to improve access and engagement for students in Evanston who have underperformed or been underrepresented in STEM.- McGaw YMCA which consists of 12,000 families serving 20,000 individuals and supporting technology and makerspace activities (MetaMedia) in a safe community atmosphere.- Office of Community Education Partnerships (OCEP) at Northwestern University which provides support for the university and community to collaborate on research, teaching, and service initiatives. This partnership will develop a new approach to learning enagement through the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) interests of all young people in Evanston. This project is entitled Interests for All (I4All) and builds upon existing research results of the two Principal Investigators (PIs) and previous partnerships between the lead partners (EvanSTEM and MetaMedia had OCEP as a founding partner). I4All also brings together Evanston school districts, OST prividers, the city, and Evanston's Northwestern University as participants. In particular the project builds on PI Pinkard's Cities of Learning project and co-PI Stevens' FUSE Studios project. Both of these projects have explicit goals to broaden participation in STEAM pursuits, a goal that is significantly advanced through I4All. In this project, I4All infrastructure will be evaluated using quantitative metrics that will tell the researchers whether and to what degree Evanston youth are finding and developing their STEAM interests and whether the I4All infrastructure supports a significantly more equitable distribution of opportunities to youth. The researchers will also conduct in depth qualitative case studies of youth interest development. These longitudinal studies will complement the quantitative metrics of participation and give measures that will be used in informing changes in I4All as part of the PIs Design Based Implementation Research approach. The artifacts produced in I4All include FUSE studio projects, software infrastructure to guide the students through OST and in-school activities and to provide to the students actionable information as to logistics for participation in I4All activities, and data that will be available to all stakeholders to evaluate the effectiveness of I4All. Additionally, this research has the potential to provide for scaling this model to different communities, leveraging the OST network in one community to begin to offer professional development more widely throughout the school districts and as an exemplar for other districts. These research results could also affect strategies and policies created by local school officials and community organizations regarding how to work together to create local learning environments to create an ecosystem where formal and informal learning spaces support and reinforce STEAM knowledge.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.