REU Site: Culturally Responsive Research in Developmental Science

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划资助。除了整合研究和教育之外，它还具有科学和社会效益。目前，大多数发展研究都是由来自中高收入家庭的单语白人进行的，并集中在他们身上。为了解决扩展发展理论以纳入服务不足和代表性不足的人群的迫切需要，该项目将从这些研究不足的人群中培养学生，使他们成为能够提供丰富和必要的发展科学观点的研究人员。通过参加德克萨斯大学达拉斯分校为期一年的REU，来自历史上未被充分代表的群体的30名学生（每年10名）将学习必要的工具，以便在现实世界中对具有挑战性的家庭进行高质量的研究，这些家庭在发展科学文献中处于弱势地位。因此，该项目将通过增加研究人员和被研究儿童的多样性来推进发展科学领域。学生将主要来自达拉斯/Ft Worth地区，与美国其他类似的大城市相比，该地区几乎没有研究密集型的四年制高等教育机构，学生获得高质量第一手研究经验的机会也很少。至少50%的学生将在达拉斯学院系统的7个社区校区之一注册，其余的学生将在德克萨斯大学达拉斯分校注册。大量历史上未被充分代表的大学生就读于当地社区学院和犹他大学。在秋季，学生将通过在Play With Me项目中发挥积极作用，获得文化响应研究所需的技能。“和我一起玩”是该REU研究经验的一个独特而重要的方面，是一个为期12周的免费家长/儿童（0-3岁）社区外展项目，由UTD发展科学家和专家根据玩耍学习研究创建，并由UTD儿童和家庭中心的发展专家指导。在UTD教师的指导下，学生将在受Play With Me经验影响的持续数据集中制定新的理论驱动的研究问题。今年春天，一个教师导师团队将指导学生收集和分析从Play With Me招募的家庭的数据。在夏季，学生们将学习向学术（期刊，会议）和非学术（通讯，社区外展）受众传播研究结果。奖学金获得者还将参加关于专业发展的褐袋讨论，包括如何确定和申请研究生院，如何准备GRE考试，以及如何确定学术职业选择。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 is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. It has both scientific and societal benefits in addition to integrating research and education. Currently, the majority of developmental research is conducted by and focused on monolingual, white individuals from middle-to-high income households. To address the critical need to expand developmental theories to incorporate underserved and underrepresented populations this project will train students from these understudied populations to become researchers who can provide rich and needed perspectives on developmental science. Through participation in the University of Texas at Dallas’s year-long REU, 30 students (10 per year) from historically underrepresented groups will learn the necessary tools to conduct high-quality research with real-world applications with families that are challenging-to-study, vulnerable, and underrepresented in the developmental science literature. Thus, the project will advance the field of developmental science by increasing diversity in both the researchers and the children who are researched.Students will be drawn primarily from the Dallas/Ft Worth area, which compared to other similarly large cities in the U.S., has few research intensive 4-year institutions of higher learning, and few opportunities for students to gain high quality, first-hand research experiences. At least 50% of the students will be enrolled at one of Dallas College system’s 7 community campuses, and the remaining students will be enrolled at The University of Texas at Dallas . A large number of historically underrepresented college students attend the local community colleges and UTD. In the fall, students will acquire skills needed for culturally-responsive research by taking an active role in the Play With Me program. Play With Me, a unique and important aspect of this REU’s research experience, is a free 12-week parent/child (ages 0-3 years) community-based outreach program created by UTD developmental scientists and specialists based on playful-learning research and directed by developmental specialists of UTD’s Center for Children and Families. With mentorship from UTD faculty, students will formulate new theoretically-driven research questions within ongoing data sets influenced by their Play With Me experience. In the spring, a faculty mentor team will guide students as they collect and analyze data from families recruited from Play With Me. In the summer, students will learn to disseminate findings to academic (journals, conferences) and non-academic (newsletters, community outreach) audiences. Fellows will also participate in brownbag discussions on professional development, including how to identify and apply to graduate schools, prepare for the GRE, and identify academic career options.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.