Exploratory: Life STEM: Promoting STEM Career Awareness, Engagement, and Identity, via a Culturally Relevant and Technology-Infused STEM-Based Curriculum

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）计划的工作，通过参与实地实践、实验室/项目创业任务和指导经验，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。NSF ITEST项目支持设计、开发、实施和选择性传播创新策略的研究，以吸引学生参与技术丰富的体验。这项面向学生和教师的创新技术体验项目将让代表性不足的少数民族（URM） 3 -5年级的学生接触到一系列科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）职业，并通过试点一所新的STEM学院，注入技术和文化相关的STEM职业模块，促进积极的STEM身份。这个为期两年的探索性项目将开发一个可持续的项目，吸引URM的学生，让他们意识到STEM职业，并激励他们考虑STEM职业的教育途径。该项目将通过少数族裔服务机构与联邦政府指定为低绩效重点或优先学校的小学之间的合作关系，为学生、教师和家庭创造培训和指导机会。该项目还将推进与教育、社会心理和家庭因素相关的知识，这些因素可能决定URM学生是否坚持从STEM教育到职业的道路。该项目将通过开发和实施与文化相关和响应性强的模块，加强3 -5年级STEM课程。该项目将探索影响市区医科大学学生在STEM方面的学习和效能的因素，同时为教师提供一个平台，以更好地了解社会文化和环境对市区医科大学学生参与STEM和对STEM职业兴趣的影响。四个主要目标如下：1)在教师、学生、家长/家庭和STEM职业伙伴之间建立有效的伙伴关系，促进协作和协同的STEM学习生态系统；2)利用最佳实践创建一个有意的、利益相关者审查的、文化相关的、技术丰富的STEM学院，旨在提高STEM职业意识；3)开发一个反思的顶点项目，鼓励应用在学院期间获得的思想、技能和知识。4)开发有目的的机制和利用创新技术来弥合学校和家庭学习之间的差距。项目目标将采用混合方法进行评估，包括调查、绘制科学家测试（DAST）、顶点项目和焦点小组的反馈。这些数据来源将阐明技术注入的文化相关教学干预对STEM职业知识、科学/科学家身份和STEM自我效能的影响。因此，该项目将吸引学生和利益相关者，同时特别关注通过STEM学院建立学生的STEM身份。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 students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.The NSF ITEST program supports research on the design, development, implementation, and selective spread of innovative strategies for engaging students in technology-rich experiences.This Innovative Technology Experience for Students and Teachers project will expose underrepresented minority (URM) 3rd-5th grade students to a range of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers, and promote positive STEM identities by piloting a novel STEM Academy infused with technology and culturally relevant STEM career-based modules. This 2-year exploratory project will develop a sustainable program to engage URM students, make them aware of STEM careers, and motivate them to consider educational pathways to STEM careers. This project will create training and mentoring opportunities for students, teachers, and families through a partnership between a minority-serving institution and elementary schools that are federally designated as low-performing focus or priority schools. The project will also advance knowledge related to educational, psychosocial, and family factors that may determine whether URM students persist in the STEM education-to-career pipeline. This project will enhance 3rd-5th grade STEM curricula by developing and implementing culturally relevant and responsive modules. The project will explore factors influencing URM students' learning and efficacy in STEM, while developing a platform for teachers to better understand socio-cultural and environmental impacts on URM students' engagement in STEM and interest in STEM careers. The four major goals are as follows: 1) develop an effective partnership that promotes a collaborative and synergistic STEM Learning Ecosystem between teachers, students, parents/families and STEM career partners; 2) utilize best practices to create an intentional, stakeholder-vetted, culturally relevant, and technology-rich STEM Academy geared toward promoting STEM occupational awareness; 3) develop a reflective capstone project that encourages application of ideas, skills, and knowledge gained during the Academy, and 4) develop purposeful mechanisms and utilize innovative technologies to bridge the gap between at-school and at-home learning. The project goals will be evaluated utilizing a mixed methods design including surveys, the Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST), the capstone project, and feedback from focus groups. These data sources will elucidate the impact of the technology-infused culturally relevant pedagogical interventions on STEM career knowledge, science/scientist identity, and STEM self-efficacy. Hence, the project will engage both students and stakeholders while focusing specifically on building students' STEM identities via a STEM AcademyThis 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.