A Networked Improvement Community Approach to School-wide Transformation, Teacher Agency, and Minoritized Students’ Climate Science Learning and Belonging

将紧迫的社会和环境正义问题纳入环境科学教学，可以利用青少年的现实兴趣，提高他们的参与度、学习能力、归属感和职业兴趣。对于直接经历结构性种族主义和环境不公正相互交织的负担的学生来说，情况可能尤其如此。该项目将调整和推广成功的Solar手提箱课程，明确将技术学习经验与环境科学和社会目的联系起来。例子包括用于发电和运输的碳中性能源技术，用于备灾和应对灾害的离网太阳能，以及允许直接参与科学和支持社区推广当地复原力项目的应用程序。该项目位于一个以拉丁裔为主的社区，通过网络改进社区(NIC)探索高中和支线中学的全校教学变革。NIC由教师、学生、社区组织和大学教职员工组成，将参与共同发展和改进科学研究。如果像焦点小组设想的那样成功，这个项目将为全校范围的变革提供一种创新的方法。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)资助，该计划支持的项目旨在加深对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解，有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。关键转型学习(CTL)为该项目提供了理论框架。CTL专注于人们如何思考、行为和与自然环境以及与当地和全球社区的关系。因此，CTL驱动的教育实践直接针对学生的生活社会历史经验，同时也考虑到气候危机及其对学生参与学习和与社会联系的不利影响。该团队将开发和维护NIC，利用教师、校长、学生、社区组织和大学教职员工之间的伙伴关系。参与研究的将包括两所学校及其校长、28名教师和600名学生。利用迭代改进周期，NIC将共同创建、测试和改进综合气候正义/气候科学课程，以支持学生的学习，包括环境内容知识、STEM和ICT参与和归属感以及相关的职业兴趣。课程开发和实施是NIC的一项主要活动，课程将被广泛共享。然而，寻求的主要成果是全校范围的变革，包括教师和学生作为基于STEM参与和知识的社区变革的推动者的身份。该项目将利用调查、访谈、录音、课堂观察、实地笔记和分层线性建模来调查通过NIC共同创造是否以及如何能够导致快速的教育创新，从而优化整个学校、教师和学生的结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Incorporating urgent issues of social and environmental justice into environmental science teaching can harness youth’s real-world interests and improve their engagement, learning, sense of belonging, and career interests. This may be especially true for students who are directly experiencing the intertwined burdens of structural racism and environmental injustice. This project will adapt and extend successful Solar Suitcase curricula that explicitly link technology learning experiences to environmental science and social purpose. Examples include carbon-neutral energy technologies for electricity generation and transportation, off-grid solar power for disaster preparedness and response, and apps allowing for direct participation in science and supporting community outreach for local resilience projects. Situated in a largely Latinx community, this project explores the transformation of school-wide pedagogy for a high school and feeder middle school through Networked Improvement Community (NIC). The NIC, comprised of teachers, students, community-based organizations, and university faculty, will engage in co-development and improvement science research. If as successful as the focus groups that envisioned it, this project will offer an innovative approach to school-wide transformation. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. Critical transformation learning (CTL) provides the theoretical framework for this project. CTL focuses on how people think, behave and relate to the natural environment, and to the local and global community. As such, CTL-driven educational practices directly address students’ lived socio-historical experience while also considering the climate crisis and its adverse impacts on students’ engagement in learning and connection to society. The team will develop and maintain an NIC that draws on partnerships between teachers, principals, students, community-based organizations, and university faculty. Research participation will include two schools and their principals, 28 teachers and 600 students. Using iterative improvement cycles the NIC will co-create, test, and improve an integrated climate-justice/climate-science curriculum to support student learning, including environmental content knowledge, STEM and ICT engagement and belonging, and related career interest. The curriculum development and implementation are a major activity of the NIC, and the curriculum will be shared widely. However, the primary outcome sought is school-wide transformation, including teacher and student identity as agents of change in the community based on STEM engagement and knowledge. The project will draw on surveys, interviews, audio recordings, classroom observations, field notes and hierarchical linear modeling to investigate whether and how co-creation through an NIC can lead to rapid educational innovation that optimizes whole school, teacher and student outcomes.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.