NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Exploring a Collaborative Model for Broadening Participation in STEM through Digital Fabrication and Making

在过去的二十年里，成千上万的创客空间，制造实验室和数字制造空间已经出现。从图书馆和科学中心到高等教育机构，“创客运动”继续获得动力，并被全球公认为是技术，创新和教育的纽带。 这种日益增长的兴趣可能部分是由于现有研究中有希望的发现。现有的研究表明，有意义的参与制造和数字制造可以在STEM兴趣和职业生涯中产生显着的积极成果，特别是在工程和制造领域。一些研究还表明，虽然成果总体上是积极的，但仍然有各种各样的学习者似乎参与不足和/或被排除在参与之外。这项规划补助金将通过创建和促进组织的多元化联盟来解决这一差距，并与各自的影响力网络一起合作，通过制作和数字制造的透镜为所有学习者设计和促进创新，可访问，包容和公平的高质量STEM学习环境。通过一个多模式的，生活的文化体验框架，该联盟希望制定一个战略性的，连贯的和可扩展的方法，推动酒吧在解决STEM的公平显着前进的计划。这项工作汇集了创客，Fab Lab，数字制造和STEM教育运动的主要利益相关者，以创建一个共同的愿景和行动计划，激发更广泛，更包容的正式和非正式教育利益相关者群体。首批组织将包括主要的国家和国际组织公民学校，数字承诺，Fab基金会，FabLearn，Maker艾德和创客之国，开始创建共同愿景的过程，并通过其网络将该愿景传达给更广泛，更多样化的利益相关者社区。 在为期一年的项目期间，项目合作伙伴将利用现有的专业知识和网络，共同努力，确定和开拓有效的文化相关的决策实践和政策，以增加STEM参与和代表性不足的群体的成功。努力将集中在五个NSF包括协作基础设施的设计要素中的两个：共享愿景和领导力以及沟通。在制定共同议程的同时，共同愿景部分将包括几项强化活动：（1）绘制和分析相关的当前方案，（2）建立一套商定的公平和包容性具体定义，（3）确定承认学习者现有知识基金的战略，以及（4）制定战略行动计划。加强领导力和沟通部分的活动将包括：（1）建立协作支持模型和操作协议，（2）记录和交流组织规划中的实践，以及（3）关于扩大参与制造和数字制造环境的联合出版物/政策白色文件。为使这项工作有基础，将为伙伴组织举办一次公平和包容讲习班，以促进共同理解和集体影响。此外，将通过知识、数据和资源共享、联网和参与在线社区，与NSF INCLUDES国家网络建立有意的联系。如果成功的话，这项规划拨款有可能为未来的大型中心、联盟或网络奠定坚实的基础，重点是通过制造和数字制造扩大对STEM的参与。这项规划补助金由NSF在工程和科学领域代表性不足的发现者的学习者社区的全国包容性资助。（NSF INCLUDES）是一项全面的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性来加强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响评审标准。

Over the past two decades, thousands of makerspaces, fabrication labs, and digital fabrication spaces have emerged. From libraries and science centers to institutions of higher education, the “Maker Movement” continues to gain momentum and is recognized globally as being at the nexus of technology, innovation, and education. This mounting interest may be in part due to promising findings from extant research. Prevailing studies show meaningful engagement in making and digital fabrication can result in marked positive outcomes in STEM interest and careers, especially in engineering and manufacturing fields. Some studies have also shown that while outcomes are generally positive, there continues to be a diverse community of learners who appear to be under-engaged and or excluded from participation. This planning grant will address this gap by creating and fostering a diverse coalition of organizations to work together, and with their respective networks of influence, to design for and promote innovative, accessible, inclusive, and equitable high-quality STEM learning environments for all learners through the lens of making and digital fabrication. Through a multi-modal, lived cultural experience framework, the coalition hopes to develop a plan for a strategic, coherent and scalable approach that moves the bar significantly forward in addressing equity in STEM. The effort brings together key stakeholders in the Maker, Fab Lab, Digital Fabrication, and STEM Education movements to create a shared vision and action plan that ignites a broader, more inclusive group of stakeholders in education, both formal and informal. The initial cohort of organizations will include the key national and international organizations Citizen Schools, Digital Promise, Fab Foundation, FabLearn, Maker Ed and Nation of Makers to begin the process of creating a shared vision, and communicating that vision throughout their networks to a broader and more diverse community of stakeholders. During the one-year project duration, project partners will leverage existing expertise and networks to work collectively to identify and pioneer effective culturally relevant making practices and policies that increase STEM engagement and success among underrepresented groups. Efforts will be centered on two of the five NSF INCLUDES design elements of collaborative infrastructure: Shared Vision and Leadership and Communication. In tandem with developing a common agenda, the Shared Vision component will include several reinforcing activities: (1) map and analyze relevant current programming, (2) establish a set of agreed upon equity and inclusion specific definitions, (3) identify strategies for recognizing existing funds of knowledge among learners, and (4) develop a strategic plan of action. Reinforcing activities for the Leadership and Communication component will include: (1) the establishment of a collaborative support model and operations protocol, (2) documentation and exchange of practices across organizational programming, and (3) a joint publication/policy white paper on the state of broadening participation in making and digital fabrication contexts. To ground this work, an equity and inclusion workshop will be held for partner organizations to promote shared understanding and collective impact. In addition, intentional connections will be made to the NSF INCLUDES National Network through knowledge, data, and resource sharing, networking, and participation in the online community. If successful, this planning grant has the potential to lay a strong foundation for a future large-scale center, alliance, or network focused on broadening participation in STEM through making and digital fabrication. This planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale.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.