Catalyst Project: Creating and Evaluating a Culturally Representative STEM Curriculum Supported by Next Generation Science Standards

Catalyst项目为历史上的黑人学院和大学提供支持，以建立教师的研究能力，加强科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高该教员的研究能力，提高该机构的研究和教学水平。让本科生参与研究体验。霍华德大学的这个项目将研究如何将非洲黑人的生活经历、遗产和成就用于创建具有文化代表性的STEM课程，并随后开发和实施在下一代科学标准中支持的具有文化代表性的STEM课程。本科生作为研究人员参与本项目。本研究将利用南卡罗来纳州格勒人的文化资源，结合科学教育教学法的最佳实践，创建具有非裔美国人文化代表性的科学课程单元。黑人学生在历史上的黑人学院和大学学习的文化资源也会影响他们对所创建的科学单元模块的兴趣和方向，即使学生在格勒地区学习科学。科学单元将在职前教师、在职教师和科学教育者的各种讲习班中实施。参与者将在下一代科学标准的三个维度支持下进行探究、讨论和实践活动。本研究将采用定性研究方法、定性数据收集和分析的最佳实践，以及图式理论作为一种应用认知理论，以及前后问卷调查，以探索以下研究问题：参与者对科学本质的态度和观点是如何变化的？更具体地说，参与者对社会、种族和文化嵌入性以及科学本质的感受、态度和观点是如何变化的？参与者对非裔美国人参与科学的理解发生了怎样的变化？参与者的教学和科学内容知识是如何变化的？参与者如何利用他们的认知资源来理解和参与文化上植根于非裔美国人格勒人生活经历中的科学？这项研究对将非裔美国人的文化基础融入K-12课堂的西方科学具有启示意义。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。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution. and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. This project at Howard University will study how the lived experiences, heritage, and accomplishments of people of Black African heritage can be used to create a culturally representative STEM curriculum, and subsequently develop and implement a culturally representative STEM curriculum supported in the Next Generation Science Standards. Undergraduate students participate in this project as researchers. This research will use the cultural resources of the Gullah people of South Carolina, along with best practices in science education pedagogy, to create science lesson units that are culturally representative of African Americans. The cultural resources of Black students who attend a Historically Black College and University will also inform the interest and direction of the science unit modules created, even as students learn about science in the Gullah regions. The science units will be implemented in various workshops with pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and science educators. Participants will engage in inquiry, discussion, and hands-on activities supported by the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards. The research will use the best practices of qualitative research methods, qualitative data collection and analysis, and schema theory as an applied cognitive theory, along with pre- and post- questionnaires, adapted to explore the following research questions: How do participants' attitudes and views of the nature of science change? More, specifically, how do participants' feelings, attitudes, and views about the social, racial, and cultural embeddedness and nature of science change? How do participants' understandings about the involvement and participation of African Americans in science change? How do participants' pedagogical and science content knowledge change? How do participants use their cognitive resources to understand and engage in science that is culturally embedded in the lived experiences of the African American Gullah people? This research has implications for embedding the cultural underpinnings of African Americans into Western science in the K-12 classroom.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.