SciGirls in the National Parks: Building Positive STEM Identities in Underserved Girls in Citizen Science Programs Using Gender Equitable and Culturally Responsive Practices

作为加强非正式环境学习总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）项目为各种环境中使用的创新资源提供资金。这一发展创新项目旨在解决扩大女童参与STEM学习和职业道路的需求。虽然女性占美国劳动力的47%，但她们只占STEM工作的28.3%，而且只有十分之一的工程师和科学家是少数族裔女性。社会经济地位较低的女孩在中学时期开始对STEM失去兴趣和信心，这种下降往往会随着女孩年龄的增长而持续下去。多重社会文化障碍导致女孩丧失自信，包括性别和种族陈规定型观念；缺乏符合文化的方案；接触女性榜样的机会有限；很少或根本没有STEM实践经验。该项目以美国公共广播公司（PBS）电视节目《科学女孩》（SciGirls）和国家外展计划的成功为基础，该计划为旨在吸引女孩参与STEM的基于研究的性别平等和文化响应的教学策略提供专业发展。这是双城公共电视台、康奈尔鸟类学实验室和国家公园管理局的合作项目。该项目的目标是为女孩，特别是有色人种和/或来自农村地区的女孩创造媒体丰富的公民科学体验，扩大她们对STEM的参与，建立积极的STEM身份，增加女孩对科学概念的理解，同时利用国家公园的公民科学参与。项目可交付成果包括：1)制作五集新的PBS SciGirls剧集，讲述16个国家公园中真实的女孩与女性导师的合作；2)制作五集新的国家公园管理局女性STEM专业人员的榜样视频，在多个PBS平台上在全国传播；3)为教育工作者和榜样提供专业发展。该项目将增加有色人种和/或农村地区女孩接受STEM教育的机会，激励她们为未来参与STEM劳动力做好准备。它将培养教育工作者和国家公园管理局女性榜样的能力，以创建欢迎不同种族、民族、社会经济和地理背景的女孩的教育和专业项目。《科学女孩》通过PBS广播和多个PBS数字平台广泛接触到不同的受众，这将增强公众的科学素养，特别是对于21世纪在线联系、学习和生活的受众。康奈尔大学鸟类学实验室的研究将解决以下问题：1)在公民科学节目中使用文化响应和性别平等的多媒体在多大程度上影响了女孩的学习成果，并有助于培养积极的STEM身份？2)她们在公园里体验公民科学将如何影响女孩与自然的联系？在项目开始时，所有参与的女孩（n=160）将完成一份关于她们对科学的兴趣、做科学的效力、公民科学知识和项目特定主题的调查。研究人员将使用一套设计仪器来测量这些结构，其中大多数已经被年轻人验证过。为了衡量与自然的联系，研究人员将使用“与自然的联系指数”，这是一种为儿童开发的量表。对女孩的访谈将用于获得定性数据，以补充调查数据。将分析帖子前的数据，以确定文化响应媒体和经历对女孩STEM身份的影响。研究人员将与项目评估人员分享研究结果，对教育工作者实施战略和女童学习成果之间的数据进行三角测量，从而更全面地了解整个项目。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。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This Innovations in Development project addresses the need to broaden girls’ participation in STEM studies and career pathways. While women make up 47% of the U.S. workforce, they hold only 28.3% of STEM jobs and only 1 in 10 employed engineers and scientists are minority women. Girls of low socioeconomic status start losing interest and confidence in STEM during middle school, and this decline often continues as girls get older. Multiple sociocultural barriers contribute to girl’s loss of confidence including gender and ethnic stereotypes; lack of culturally responsive programming; limited exposure to women role models; and few or no hands-on STEM experiences. This project builds upon the success of SciGirls, the PBS television show and national outreach program, which provides professional development on research-based gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies designed to engage girls in STEM. It is a collaboration between Twin Cities Public Television, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Park Service. The project’s goal is to create media-rich citizen science experiences for girls, particularly girls of color and/or from rural areas, which broaden their STEM participation, build positive STEM identities and increase girls’ understanding of scientific concepts, while leveraging citizen science engagement at national parks. Project deliverables include 1) creating five new PBS SciGirls episodes that feature real girls working with women mentors in 16 National Parks, 2) producing five new role model videos of women National Park Service STEM professionals, nationally disseminated on multiple PBS platforms, 3) providing professional development for educators and role models. This project will increase access to STEM education for girls of color and/or from rural areas, inspiring and preparing them for future STEM workforce participation. It will build the capacity of educators and National Park Service women role models to create educational and professional programs that are welcoming to girls of varying racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds. SciGirls’ massive reach to diverse audiences via PBS broadcast and multiple PBS digital platforms will amplify public scientific literacy, particularly for 21st- century audiences that connect, learn and live online. The research study conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will address these questions: 1) To what extent does the use of culturally responsive and gender equitable multimedia in citizen science programming affect girls’ learning outcomes, and contribute to the development of positive STEM identity? 2) how will their experiencing citizen science in the parks influence girls’ connection to nature? At the beginning of the project all participating girls (n=160) will complete a survey on their interest in science, efficacy for doing science, and knowledge of citizen science and project-specific subject matter. Researchers will use the suite of DEVISE instruments most of which have been validated for youth to measure these constructs. To measure connection to nature, researchers will use the Connection to Nature Index, a scale developed for children. Interviews with the girls will be used to obtain qualitative data to supplement the survey data. Pre-post data will be analyzed to determine the influence of the culturally responsive media and experiences on girls’ STEM identities. Researchers will share findings with the project evaluator to triangulate data between educators’ implementation of the strategies and girls’ learning outcome providing a more holistic picture of the overall program.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.