A Youth-Led Citizen Science Network for Community Environmental Assessment

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，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，为缺乏服务的初高中青年开发一个技术丰富的课外STEM项目。新项目的特色是公民科学活动，涉及移动传感器、无人机、地图软件和其他与环境科学数据收集和职业相关的技术。将开发四个学习模块，重点关注空气、噪音和土壤污染，以及与土地使用相关的因素如何导致不同类型的污染。实地数据将与土地覆盖分类进行比较，以审查污染物如何与自然环境和建筑环境相关联并受其影响。参与者还将利用他们正在发展的技术技能，通过网站、数字故事、视频和公民科学咖啡馆向更多的受众传播他们的发现。在科学咖啡馆里，年轻人将通过引导他们的父母或看护人、兄弟姐妹和整个社区参与公民科学活动来获得领导技能。该项目扩展了公民科学项目的典型模式，让参与者超越加入已建立的公民科学项目，以当地社区的问题和能力为基础发起自己的项目。如果成功，这个项目的模式有可能广泛适用于其他社区，并与当地或区域利益或重要性的研究联系起来。这个设计和开发项目将直接吸引45名8年级和9年级的学生，随着参与者的家庭和社区成员参与到公民科学咖啡馆中，有可能影响300多人。大多数项目活动将在政府补贴的住房场地进行。该计划通过五个要素进行：课程开发、讲师准备、沉浸式暑期课程、参与青年学年课程和公民科学咖啡馆。该项目将开发四个教学模块：空气污染、噪音污染、土壤污染和自然与建筑环境。学生将获得实地研究方法的经验，同时学习使用各种传感器和相关技术收集高质量的数据。他们将使用这些数据来回答科学问题。本文将采用一种混合方法来检验与研究问题相关的结果：(1)参与以社区为中心的环境公民科学如何影响科学的三个方面的发展：绩效、能力和作为科学家的认可？(2)参与以社区为中心的环境公民科学活动在多大程度上以及如何推动青年充分参与科学界？(3)绩效、能力和认可水平如何影响科学界全面参与的进程？数据来源将包括学生科学认同调查、相关知识测试、学生访谈协议、学生观察协议、学生工件规则和家长/照顾者访谈协议。面谈将定期与学生参与者进行，并在课程结束时与家长/照顾者进行面谈。该项目将通过解决与社区相关的课程、正规和非正规教育的联系有关的重要问题，并研究STEM学习生态系统的潜在新元素，包括利用学生发起的公民科学努力和青年领导的公民科学咖啡馆，扩大现有的ITEST组合。通过嵌入式研究，本项目还将促进对科学认同发展及其与STEM职业选择关系的理解。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 a technology-rich, out-of-school time STEM program for underserved middle and high school youth. The new program features citizen science activities involving mobile sensors, drones, mapping software, and other technologies associated with environmental science data collection and careers. Four learning modules will be developed that focus on air, noise, and soil pollution, and how factors associated with land use contribute to different types of pollution. Field data will be compared to land cover classifications to examine how pollutants are related to and influenced by natural and built environments. Participants will also use their developing technology skills to communicate their findings to larger audiences using a website, digital stories, videos, and citizen science cafes. In the science cafes, youth will gain leadership skills by guiding their parents or caregivers, siblings, and the community at large in citizen science activities. This project extends the typical pattern of citizen science projects by having participants go beyond joining established citizen science projects to initiating their own projects grounded in issues and affordances of their local communities. If successful, the model from this project has the potential to be broadly adapted to other communities and linked to research of local or regional interest or importance.This design and development project will directly engage 45 students in grades 8 and 9, with potential for reaching over 300 individuals as participants' families and community members become involved in citizen science cafes. Most project activities will take place at government subsidized housing sites. The program progresses through five elements: curriculum development, instructor preparation, immersive summer sessions, school-year sessions for participating youth, and citizen science cafes. The project will develop four teaching modules: Air Pollution, Noise Pollution, Soil Pollution, and Natural and Built Environments. Students will gain experience with field research methods while learning to collect high-quality data using various sensors and related technologies. They will use the data to answer scientific questions. A mixed methods approach will be employed to examine outcomes related to the research questions: (1) How does participation in community-focuses environmental citizen science impact the development of three aspects of science: performance, competence, and recognition as a scientist?(2) To what extent and how does participation in community-focused environmental citizen science activities move youth towards full participation in the science community? and (3) How do levels of performance, competence, and recognition influence progress towards full participation in the science community? Data sources will include a student science identity survey, a test of relevant knowledge, a student interview protocol, a student observation protocol, student artifact rubrics, and a parent/caregiver interview protocol. Interviews will be conducted with student participants at regular intervals, and with parents/caregivers at the end of program sessions. This project will expand the existing ITEST portfolio by addressing important questions relating to community-relevant curricula, linkages of formal and informal education, and examining potential new elements of STEM learning ecosystems, including the use of student-initiated citizen science endeavors and youth-led citizen science cafes. Through the embedded research, this project will also advance understanding of science identity development and its relationship to STEM occupational choices.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.