EAGER: Science and Ethics in Informal STEM Contexts

作为其整体战略的一部分，以加强在非正式环境中的学习，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进新的方法，并以证据为基础的理解，在非正式环境中的STEM学习的设计和开发。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深入学习的理解。EAGER旨在探索科学实践中的研究伦理状况，特别是道德如何在非正式STEM机构中发挥作用，通过多种文化传统和观点的镜头。通过制作一部名为《非殖民化科学》的纪录片，该项目将让科学家和非正式的STEM教育工作者参与考虑非正式的STEM机构如何重新设想他们的工作，从根本上拥抱包容性和归属感。探索过程将挑战并告知非正式STEM学习机构和与他们合作的科学家，以考虑如何应对当代社会紧张局势，支持重视不同观点的研究，并促进非殖民化实践。该项目的一个重要组成部分包括与已经处于新语言和知识创造第一线的非正式学习机构一起进行筛选、研讨会和困难对话。该项目将是一个合作的过程，因为参与者的想法，观点和论点将从一开始就塑造项目。一旦电影制作完成，合作将继续进行，让服务于有色人种社区的机构中的科学从业者参与进来，并投资于实现更大的多样性，包容性，公平性和可及性。与电影放映相关的讨论将告知非正式学习机构如何从根本上重新想象他们的工作和空间，包括教学，策展，研究，交流以及知识和文学作品。这部电影将探索西方科学的起源，创造和演变，作为一种企业，它可以升华，边缘化和重新叙述科学中代表性不足的有色人种的实践，程序，道德和贡献。通过焦点小组，访谈和促进讨论，EAGER将记录和分享科学家，非正式STEM教育工作者和电影制作人之间的互动，因为他们探索如何在有色人种社区，在他们的土地上，在他们的国家内实践更多的伦理科学，以及如何在非正式STEM学习机构中描绘和制定科学。该项目旨在挑战和改变非正式STEM学习机构和科学，通过一个尚未测试的，经过深思熟虑的，和人道的方法，以科学的道德实践及其在非正式STEM学习机构的实施，通过电影和设想可能的未来。该项目由教育和人力资源局/推进非正式STEM学习计划，社会，行为和经济科学伦理和责任研究计划以及地球科学教育和多样性计划局共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF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 seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This EAGER seeks to explore the state of research ethics in practice in science and, specifically, how ethics plays out in informal STEM institutions, through lenses of multiple cultural traditions and perspectives. By means of producing a documentary, Decolonizing Science, the project will engage scientists and informal STEM educators in considering how informal STEM institutions could re-envision their work to fundamentally embrace inclusivity and belonging. The exploratory process will challenge and inform informal STEM learning institutions and the scientists with whom they work to consider how to navigate contemporary social tensions, support research that values diverse perspectives, and promote decolonizing practices. A significant component of the project includes screenings, workshops, and difficult conversations, in conjunction with informal learning institutions that are already on the front lines of new language and knowledge creation. The project will be a collaborative process as participants’ thoughts, views, and arguments will shape the project from the beginning. Once the film is made, collaboration will continue by engaging science-based practitioners at institutions that serve communities of color and that are invested in working towards greater diversity, inclusivity, equity, and access. Discussions related to the film’s screenings will inform how informal learning institutions can radically re-imagine their work and their spaces, including teaching, curation, research, communication, and knowledge and literature production. The film will explore the origins, creation, and evolution of Western science as an enterprise that can sublimate, marginalize and re-narrativize the practices, procedures, ethics, and contributions of the underrepresented people of color in science. Through focus groups, interviews, and facilitated discussions, this EAGER will document and share the interactions among scientists, informal STEM educators, and filmmakers as they explore how to practice more ethical science in communities of color, on their lands, and within their nations, as well as how science can be portrayed and enacted within informal STEM learning institutions. The project seek to challenge and shift both informal STEM learning institutions and the sciences, through a yet-untested, well-considered, and humane approach to ethical practices of science and their implementation in informal STEM learning institutions through a film and by envisioning possible futures. This project is jointly funded by Directorate for Education and Human Resources/Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Ethical and Responsible Research program and the Directorate for Geosciences Education and Diversity 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.