Collaborative Research: STEM Career Connections: A Model for Preparing Economically-Disadvantaged Rural Youth for the Future Workforce

该项目将开发和研究一种创新模式，以支持农村贫困学生的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）知识和职业兴趣。学生将直接与STEM专业人士合作，并利用科学和工程实践来研究设计挑战。该项目将设计一个课程，让年轻人使用可编程传感器技术进行科学和工程研究。课程将采用故事情节技术设计，即由学生的问题驱动连贯的科学调查序列。故事情节也将帮助学生解决设计挑战。这个项目是由来自大学大气研究公司、科罗拉多大学博尔德分校和犹他州立大学的科学家、实践者、教育研究人员和教学设计师共同努力的结果。项目团队将在科罗拉多州伊格尔县现有的合作伙伴关系中开展工作，该合作伙伴关系由非营利社区基金会YouthPower365组成，为来自经济困难家庭的青少年、伊格尔县学校和当地韦尔山谷企业提供服务，共同开发和研究创新的校外学习时间（OST）经验。该项目将通过在课外和暑期项目中参与当地相关设计挑战的传感器集成学习体验，帮助经济困难的中学生更充分地参与STEM和计算机职业道路。本研究将检视项目模式如何能成为青年学习与职业经验之间的桥梁，检视青年能在多大程度上建立个人相关的联系。该团队将使用定性和定量研究方法来回答三个研究问题。1)社区伙伴关系有哪些工具和做法可以支持青少年探索与本地相关的STEM和计算途径？2)哪些学习经历能让中学生建立起与STEM和计算机职业相关的个人联系？3)参与STEM职业连接在多大程度上激发弱势青年对STEM和计算机职业的兴趣和学习？收集的研究数据包括学生访谈、调查和青年在OST活动中创造的人工制品。学生对STEM和计算机职业兴趣的变化将通过参与学生个人大学和职业计划（ICAP）的内容分析来确定。项目评估将检查项目目标的实现程度，合作伙伴的有效参与程度，以及年轻人在STEM和计算机职业生涯中的有效联系程度。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，以更好地理解和促进提高中学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。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 develop and study an innovative model to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) knowledge and career interests of rural, economically disadvantaged students. Students will work directly with STEM professionals and use science and engineering practices to investigate design challenges. The project will design a curriculum where youth use programmable sensor technologies for science and engineering investigations. The curriculum will be designed using a storyline technique whereby a coherent sequence of science investigations is driven by student questions. Storylines will also support student progress towards solving design challenges. This project is a collaborative effort involving scientists, practitioners, educational researchers, and instructional designers from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, University of Colorado Boulder, and Utah State University. The project team will work within an existing partnership in Eagle County, Colorado, consisting of a non-profit community foundation, YouthPower365, serving youth from economically disadvantaged families, the Eagle County Schools, and local Vail Valley businesses to collaboratively develop and study innovative out-of-school time (OST) learning experiences. This project will help prepare economically disadvantaged middle school youth to more fully participate in STEM and computing career pathways by engaging with sensor-integrated learning experiences around locally relevant design challenges in afterschool and summer programs. The research will examine how the project model can serve as a bridge between youth learning and career experiences, examining the degree to which youth are able to construct personally relevant connections. The team will use qualitative and quantitative research methods to answer three research questions. 1) What tools and practices enable a community partnership to support youth exploration of locally relevant STEM and computing pathways? 2) What learning experiences enable middle school youth to create personally relevant connections with STEM and computing careers? 3) To what extent does participating in STEM Career Connections stimulate disadvantaged youth interest and learning in STEM and computing careers? Research data to be collected include student interviews, surveys, and artifacts created by youth during OST activities. Changes in students' interests in STEM and computing careers will be determined through content analyses of participating students' Individual College and Career Plans (ICAP). Project evaluation will examine the degree to which projects goals are being met, partners are effectively engaging, and youth are making productive STEM and computing career connections.This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase middle school youth motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).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.