Empathy-Driven Engineering Internships for Teens: Connecting Technical Work to Social Needs

这个项目回应了工程界女性、非裔美国人和拉丁裔人代表性不足的长期模式。许多年轻人仍然对什么是工程和工程师的工作有有限的、有时是不准确的理解。通常，这些对工程的有限认识与年轻人的兴趣和长处不一致。在校和校外的时间体验都可以为年轻人提供强大的机会，让他们熟悉工程和工程职业道路，发展与工程相关的知识和技能，并开始培养对工程的兴趣。然而，这些经历往往是短期的，这可能会限制年轻人能够做到的程度：认识到工程如何与他们的兴趣保持一致，开始将自己视为工程师，并体验真实的、迭代的工程设计过程。该项目通过邀请120名青年在全国五个地点进行为期数月的工程实习来解决这一限制：科罗拉多州、加利福尼亚州、阿拉巴马州、新泽西州和华盛顿特区。该项目还解决了另一个挑战：许多大学前工程经验传统上侧重于技术和技术解决方案，这可能会限制青年发展解决社会技术问题所需技能的机会，并限制青年了解他们的兴趣如何与工程学相一致的机会。参加建造更好书籍实习的青年参与者将花费三到四个月的时间参与迭代工程设计过程和实践，为盲人或视力低下的儿童设计和制作书籍和其他产品。这个机会将使年轻人能够发展技术技能，包括使用激光切割机和3D打印机等技术，同时也包括关注工程工作如何造福人们。青少年创作的无障碍书籍、游戏和其他产品的设计将在项目网站上分享，这样他们就可以与其他人分享和复制。本项目的研究目标是研究长期的、专业结构的、移情驱动的工程实习对青少年对工程、身份和可转移STEM技能的感知的影响。本研究试图通过将工程学框架中的人部分与兴趣持久化理论的原则相结合，来理解干预如何能够发展出更具包容性和以人为中心的工程学认同。来自科罗拉多博尔德大学、洛杉矶中心(HOLA)、山湖图书馆、特鲁斯维尔市学校、华盛顿领导力学院特许学校和J.Sickler咨询公司的研究人员和教育工作者将合作进行基于设计的案例研究，以检验五种不同的正式和非正式教育环境中的实习模式，以解决三个问题：(1)移情驱动的工程实习模式在多大程度上和以何种方式影响青少年实习生对工程学、个人工程身份、可转移的STEM劳动力技能的看法，以及对他们的职业轨迹的愿景？(2)无论背景如何，同理心驱动的工程实习的哪些要素对青少年的认知和社交情感收益最关键？(3)不同的背景要求在实施方面有哪些不同的方面，以有效地参与并激发青少年的持续兴趣？为了调查这些问题，调查人员将使用比较、多案例研究设计，通过以下方式收集数据：前/后问卷、视频反思、焦点小组和学生人工制品。调查人员还将从一个对照小组和项目校友那里收集调查回复。数据分析计划包括描述性和推断性统计、非参数比较和使用演绎框架的定性编码。调查人员将综合每个地点的具体调查结果，以创建案例描述，并对其进行分析，以探索不同地点的相似和差异。该项目将与研究人员和从业者广泛分享研究成果，以促进该领域对积极影响(或限制)青少年学习工程学的动机和他们在该领域的坚持性的关键因素和实践的理解。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)资助，该计划支持建立对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解的项目，这些项目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。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。

This project responds to the persistent patterns of underrepresentation of women, African American and Latinx people in engineering. Many youth continue to have a limited, and at times inaccurate, understanding of what engineering is and what engineers do. Often, these limited perceptions of engineering do not align with youths’ interests and strengths. Both in-school and out-of-school time experiences can provide powerful opportunities for young people to become familiar with engineering and engineering career pathways, develop engineering-related knowledge and skills, and begin to develop an interest in engineering. However, these experiences are often short-term, which can limit the extent that youth are able to: recognize how engineering can align with their interests, begin to see themselves as engineers, and experience an authentic, iterative engineering design process. This project addresses this limitation by engaging 120 youth in multi-month engineering internships at five sites across the country: Colorado, California, Alabama, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. The project also addresses an additional challenge: the traditional focus of many pre-college engineering experiences on technology and technical solutions can limit youths’ opportunities to develop skills needed for sociotechnical problem solving and limit opportunities for youth to see how their interests align with engineering. Youth participants in the Build a Better Book internship will spend three to four months engaging in iterative engineering design processes and practices as they design and fabricate books and other products for children who are blind or low vision. This opportunity will enable youth to develop technical skills, including work with technologies like laser cutters and 3D printers, while also including a focus on how engineering work can benefit people. Youth-created designs of accessible books, games, and other products will be shared on the project website so they can be shared with and reproduced by others. The research objective of this project is to study the influences of a long-term, professionally- structured, empathy-driven engineering internship on teens’ perceptions of engineering, identities, and transferrable STEM skills. The research seeks to understand how an intervention can develop a more inclusive and human-centered engineering identity by integrating the People Part of Engineering framework with the principles of persistence of interest theory. Researchers and educators from the University of Colorado Boulder, Heart of LA (HOLA), Mountain Lakes Library, Trussville City Schools, Washington Leadership Academy Charter School, and J. Sickler Consulting will collaborate on design-based case study research to examine the internship model in five diverse formal and informal education settings to address three questions: (1) To what extent, and in what ways, does the empathy-driven engineering internship model impact teen interns’ perceptions of engineering, personal engineering identities, transferrable STEM workforce skills, and vision of their career trajectory? (2) Which elements of empathy-driven engineering internships are most critical to teens’ cognitive and social-emotional gains, regardless of context? (3) In what ways do different contexts require distinct variations in implementation to effectively engage and activate persistence of interest in teens? To investigate these questions the investigators will use a comparative, multiple-case study design, with data collected through: pre/post questionnaires, video reflections, focus groups, and student artifacts. The investigators will also collect survey responses from a comparison group and from program alumni. Data analysis plans include descriptive and inferential statistics, non-parametric comparisons, and qualitative coding using a deductive framework. The investigators will synthesize findings specific to each site to create case descriptions which will also be analyzed for explore similarities and differences across the different sites. The project will share research findings broadly, with both researchers and practitioners, to advance the field’s understanding of the critical factors and practices that positively influence (or limit) teens’ motivation to pursue engineering and their persistence in the field. 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.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.