Cultivating Science: Examining the Free-Choice Science Learning Networks of Urban Gardeners

自由选择和兴趣驱动的学习活动是成年人一生中学习STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）的重要来源。园艺就是这样一种广泛存在于各个社区的活动，每50个美国成年人中就有一个对园艺/植物感兴趣，并将这种兴趣/爱好与科学联系在一起。虽然兴趣和爱好这两个词是相关的，但后者指的是一个人积极做的事情，而不仅仅是考虑做的事情。在高度可见的社区空间（如园艺俱乐部、科学中心、植物园）寻找学习和参与机会的成年人可能是受过良好教育的白人。需要进一步了解来自其他人口群体的社区成员何时以及如何获得不同的资源（人员、组织和地点）以获取信息和机会，以及影响他们这样做的因素。这项试点和可行性研究将探索加利福尼亚州阿拉米达县的非正式学习网络，特别是围绕园丁和园艺。研究人员将使用调查、焦点小组和项目观察来收集那些追求自我指导的园艺科学学习的人如何获取信息的数据。我们感兴趣的是不同社区成员获取和追求信息的差异是如何发生的，尤其是那些在更成熟的园艺大师和其他有组织的园艺项目之外的人。本研究将：1)有助于理解兴趣驱动的成人STEM学习者获取的资源，描述他们感知到的障碍，以及获取的资源如何/是否因性别、种族或社会经济学而不同；2)确定抽样方法的可行性，从以前的研究工作中可能没有接触到的人口统计学群体中的个人收集数据；3)为非正式科学教育从业者和研究人员提供关于如何更好地支持各种兴趣驱动的STEM学习者的见解。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。据推测，有很大一部分来自非优势群体的个体从事自由选择的STEM学习；过去的努力可能低估了这些社区个人的参与。为了实现研究目标，研究团队将利用受访者驱动的抽样，参与园艺爱好者的社会联系来招募参与者，并收集来自不同（性别，种族，社会经济学）的城市园丁的数据，这些园丁可能与STEM学习生态系统资源/组织的联系不同，而不是他们高度显眼的同龄人。该方法将用于研究与STEM学习相关的行为、认知和结果，如自我效能感和科学认同的发展。焦点小组将为调查数据中出现的主题提供背景，并澄清爱好者的参与偏好和经验。对学习环境的现场观察是收集数据的第三种机制。所有这三个数据来源将支持结果的三角测量，并有助于发现。该项目的主要成果将是确定是否通过抽样方法达到目标人群，确定抽样的方法指导方针，目的是达到与stem相关的自由选择活动中代表性不足的人群，并澄清哪些网络变量对研究最有用。本研究为今后的工作奠定了基础。预计本研究中开发和测试的方法可能会在未来被其他人采用，并有可能成为社区组织和对研究以前隐藏的参与者群体的学习生态系统感兴趣的研究人员的模型，包括这些人如何感知和获取资源以支持他们的STEM学习。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。

Free-choice and interest-driven learning activities are a highly significant source of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning for adults through their lifespans. Gardening is one such activity that is widespread across communities with one in every fifty American adults reporting an interest in gardening/plants and who associate that interest/hobby with science. While the terms interest and hobby are related, the latter refers to something one actively does, not just thinks about doing. Adults who seek out learning and participation opportunities in highly visible community spaces (e.g., gardening clubs, science centers, botanical gardens) are likely to be White and well-educated. Further understanding is needed of when and how community members from other demographic groups access different resources (people, organizations, and places) for information and opportunities, and what influences them to do so. This Pilot and Feasibility Study will explore informal learning networks in Alameda County, California, specifically around gardeners and gardening. Researchers will use surveys, focus groups, and program observations to gather data on how those who pursue self-directed scientific learning about gardening access information. Of interest is how the differential access to and pursuit of information occurs among diverse community members, especially those outside of more established Master Gardener and other organized gardening programs. This research will: 1) contribute to understanding of the resources that interest-driven adult STEM learners access, describing the barriers they perceive and how/if the accessed resources differ by gender, race, or socioeconomics; 2) determine the feasibility of a sampling approach to gather data from individuals in demographic groups who may not have been reached in prior research efforts; and 3) generate insights for informal science education practitioners and researchers about how to better support diverse interest-driven STEM learners. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. It is hypothesized that there is a large percentage of individuals from non-dominant populations engaged in free-choice STEM learning; past efforts have likely under-counted the participation of individuals from these communities. To achieve the research aims the research team will utilize respondent-driven sampling, engaging gardening hobbyists’ social contacts to recruit participants, and collect data from diverse (gender, race, socioeconomics) urban gardeners who may be differently connected to STEM learning ecosystem resources/organizations than their highly visible peers. This approach will be used to investigate the behaviors, perceptions, and outcomes related to STEM learning such as development of self-efficacy and science identity. Focus groups will provide context for themes that arise in the survey data and clarify hobbyists’ participation preferences and experiences. In situ observations of learning environments comprise the third mechanism for collecting data. All three data sources will support triangulation of results and contribute to the findings. Key outcomes of this project will be to determine if the target population has been reached through the sampling approach, to identify methodological guidelines for sampling with an intent to reach those from populations under-represented in STEM-related free-choice activities, and to clarify which network variables are most useful to study. This research lays the foundation for future work. It is anticipated that the approach developed and tested in this research may be adapted by others in the future and will have the potential to serve as a model for community-based organizations and researchers interested in studying the learning ecosystems of previously hidden populations of participants, including how these individuals perceive and access resources to support their STEM learning.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.