Studying Scientist-Educator-Artist Collaborations and Participatory Community Learning around Environmental Change and Adaptation

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划寻求促进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。这个为期两年的试点和可行性项目旨在通过研究科学-教育-艺术合作如何以及为什么产生有影响力的非正式STEM学习经验，在非正式STEM学习领域建立知识和战略影响。通过为成年观众设计和实施互动和参与性体验，该项目将建立关于如何帮助社区了解环境科学并将科学知识应用于他们生活中的环境决策的知识。该项目的两个主要研究问题是：(1)科学家、教育工作者和艺术家之间合作的基本要素是什么，以支持在不断变化的环境中学习适应？(2)设计的、参与性的、非正式的科学学习经验以什么方式支持参与者的学习？这一试点项目将：a)制定促进和评估科学家、教育工作者和艺术家之间合作的方法；b)试验和改进让科学家、教育工作者和艺术家与社区成员接触的方法，以获得高质量的参与性体验，重点是在非正式学习环境中学习适应环境变化的知识；c)试验和改进方法，以衡量社区参与者关于环境变化的知识及其在日常生活中的应用的成果。这个项目在研究合作过程和跨学科合作促进学习的具体方式方面具有创新性，它连接了不同的学术机构。由于非正式的STEM学习环境往往结合了多个学科的工作，研究协作、参与性STEM学习的过程和结果有可能为实现更有影响力的教育结果提供广泛适用的指导。拟议的项目将通过让环境脆弱社区的成年成员参与参与性STEM活动来扩大参与范围，并将通过为未来的决策提供工具来改善个人和社区的福祉。该合作项目将在不同的社会部门之间建立有价值的伙伴关系和能力，使共同学习和共同生产知识成为可能。结果将发表在学术期刊上，并与社区参与者分享。这一奖项反映了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。

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 two-year Pilots and Feasibility project seeks to build knowledge and strategic impact in the informal STEM learning field by studying how and why science-education-art collaborations yield impactful informal STEM learning experiences. By design and implementing interactive and participatory experiences for adult audiences, this project will build knowledge about how to help communities learn about environmental science and apply scientific knowledge to environmental decision-making in their lives. The project’s two overarching research questions are: (1) What are the essential elements of collaboration among scientists, educators, and artists that support learning about adaptation in a changing environment? (2) In what ways do designed, participatory, informal science learning experiences support participant learning? This pilot project will: a) develop methods for facilitating and assessing collaboration among scientists, educators, and artists; b) pilot and refine approaches for engaging scientists, educators, and artists with community members for high quality participatory experiences focus on learning about adaptation to environmental change in informal learning settings; c) pilot and refine methods to measure the outcomes for community participants on knowledge about environmental change and its application to problems in their everyday lives. This project is innovative in bridging a diverse body of scholarship in order to study the process of collaboration and the specific ways interdisciplinary collaborations foster learning. Because informal STEM learning settings often combine the work of multiple disciplines, examining the process and outcomes of collaborative, participatory STEM learning has the potential to deliver widely applicable guidance for achieving more impactful educational outcomes.The proposed project will broaden participation by engaging adult members of environmentally vulnerable communities in participatory STEM activities and will improving individual and community well-being by delivering tools for future decision-making. The collaborative project will build valuable partnerships and capacity between disparate sectors of society, allowing co-learning and co-production of knowledge. Results will be published in scholarly journals as well as shared with community participants.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.