Cultivating Scientific Literacy and Action through Place-based Experiential Learning: Expanding the Use of a Campus Farm as an Interdisciplinary Learning Hub

该项目旨在通过研究基于地点的体验式学习（PBEL）如何增强本科生对科学的学习，为本科STEM教育的国家利益服务。 PBEL是一种将学生的学习与当地环境联系起来的教学策略。 它还为学生提供了识别，定义和解决真实的问题的机会。国家解决其面临的复杂问题和维护国家繁荣的能力需要教育进入STEM劳动力队伍的学生和追求非STEM职业的学生。因此，该项目将同时服务于STEM专业和非专业。 尽管校园农场的数量自1992年以来增加了13倍，但它们仍然是本科教育的一个未充分利用的资源。 该项目旨在利用校园农场作为真实的跨学科STEM学习的本地环境。为了实现这一目标，该项目将开发和实施基于校园农场的PBEL模块，将STEM学科和商业和通信等非STEM学科整合在一起。 学生将有机会在他们的PBEL课程工作中应用多种类型的知识和探究策略。 这种学习经验已被证明可以提高学生和教师的热情，享受，参与，内容知识，批判性思维和公民意识。这个项目的成果有可能使更多的学生接触到STEM，教育未来的劳动力如何成功地参与跨学科合作，并提高对STEM在社会中的作用的看法。巴特勒大学的城市生态和可持续发展中心将利用巴特勒的校园农场作为一个查询，话语和社区参与的地方。 该项目将追求两个目标：1）为STEM专业和非专业课程开发和实施一系列跨学科PBEL课程模块; 2）衡量项目在实现包括学生学习在内的成果方面的功效（例如，环境科学素养;科学推理;地方依附与意义;公民意识），教师合作和机构的可持续性。为了实现这些目标，该中心以前开发的PBEL框架将被完善，并用于指导教师和工作人员的学习社区。 这个学习社区将促进在STEM和非STEM课程中有效设计和实施农场PBEL模块。来自普渡大学工程与技术学院和印第安纳州普渡大学印第安纳波利斯分校STEM教育创新与研究所的研究人员将量化和定性地检查PBEL实施保真度，确定改善课程实施的最佳实践，并确定对目标学生成果的影响。从长远来看，该项目预计将其方法扩展到其他拥有校园农场的本科院校，并将课程扩展到包括道德。项目活动有可能经过修改，用于多种正规和非正规教育环境。 该项目是一个开发和实施项目（学生学习轨道），由NSF改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）计划：教育和人力资源（EHR）支持。 IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有本科生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF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 aims to serve the national interest in undergraduate STEM education by studying how place-based experiential learning (PBEL) can enhance undergraduate student learning about science. PBEL is an instructional strategy that connects student learning to a local context. It also provides students with opportunities to identify, define, and solve real problems. The nation's ability to solve the complex problems it faces and to maintain national prosperity require educating both students who enter the STEM workforce and students who pursue non-STEM careers. Consequently, this project will serve both STEM majors and non-majors. Although the number of campus farms has increased 13-fold since 1992, they remain an underused resource for undergraduate education. This project aims to use campus farms as a local context for authentic, interdisciplinary STEM learning. To achieve this goal, the project will develop and implement campus farm-based PBEL modules that integrate STEM disciplines and non-STEM disciplines such as business and communication. Students will have opportunities to apply multiple types of knowledge and inquiry strategies within their PBEL course work. Such learning experiences have been shown to increase student and instructor enthusiasm, enjoyment, engagement, content knowledge, critical thinking, and civic mindedness. Results of this project have the potential to make STEM accessible to more students, to educate the future workforce about how to successfully participate in interdisciplinary collaborations, and to enhance perceptions about STEM's role in society.The Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability at Butler University will leverage Butler's campus farm as a place of inquiry, discourse, and community engagement. The project will pursue two goals: 1) to develop and implement a collection cross-disciplinary PBEL course modules for both STEM major and non-major courses; and 2) to measure project efficacy in achieving outcomes including student learning (e.g., environmental science literacy; scientific reasoning; place attachment and meaning; civic mindedness), faculty collaboration, and institutional sustainability. To achieve these goals, the Center's previously-developed PBEL framework will be refined and used to guide a faculty-staff learning community. This learning community will facilitate the effective design and implementation of farm-situated PBEL modules in STEM and non-STEM courses. Researchers from the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology and the STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will quantify and qualitatively examine PBEL implementation fidelity, identify best practices to improve curricular implementation, and determine impacts on targeted student outcomes. Long-term, the project expects to scale its approach to other undergraduate institutions that have campus-based farms, and to expand the curriculum to include ethics. The project activities have the potential to be modified for use in multiple formal and informal educational settings. This project is a Development and Implementation project (Engaged Student Learning track) that is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Program: Education and Human Resources (EHR). The IUSE : EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all undergraduate students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the Program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising educational tools and practices.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.