WaterMarks: An art/science framework for community-engaged learning around water and water management in an urban area

密尔沃基已经确立了自己在水管理和技术方面的领先地位，举办了一系列广泛认可的工业、政府、非营利和学术活动，重点关注淡水。与此同时，密尔沃基在淡水方面面临着广泛的挑战，其中一些是该地区独有的，另一些是全国各地城市共同面临的。这些挑战包括在暴雨后易受洪水和下水道溢流的影响、地表水中的生物和药物污染、饮用水基础设施中的铅，以及进入海滩和其他娱乐水域设施方面的不平等。与其他城市一样，密尔沃基也在努力应对全球气候变化给城市供水带来的挑战，包括不断变化的降水和干旱模式。这些问题由于密尔沃基严重的种族和经济隔离而变得更加复杂。密尔沃基大约有595,000人口，位于超过150万的大都市地区，仍然是美国种族隔离程度最高的城市之一。越来越迫切地需要让公众--特别是那些最容易受到环境影响的人--更深入地参与城市水的管理和创造可持续的城市未来的任务。这个为期四年的项目的主要目标是通过开发一个框架，将艺术与科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)经验以及地理、水资源管理和社会科学相结合，促进社区参与学习和环境管理。STEM学习和艺术之间的协同效应表明，艺术家、科学家和社区之间的合作可以开辟将可持续发展科学的非正式学习带到社区的途径。项目活动包括艺术家/科学家/社区成员主导的步行，旨在吸引来自社区和整个城市的多代参与者考虑社区的条件、特征、历史和生态系统。在与当地居民、科学家/专家和其他利益攸关方的研讨会中，我们将扩大步行的范围，包括探索当前与水有关的环境挑战并提出解决方案。讲习班利用了不同的观点，包括生活经验、科学知识和政策专门知识。当地艺术家创作的艺术项目扩大了社区对这些主题的参与，包括为青少年和年轻人制作节目。一个网站，以及整合到城市各地各种Marker网站的免费Wi-Fi，鼓励用户进行自我指导学习，以探索供水系统和周围社区面临的问题。节目主要集中在密尔沃基北区附近以非裔美国人为主的地区，以及南区附近以拉丁裔/西班牙裔为主的地区。这些地区的许多社区容易受到洪水频发、饮用水中铅污染、安全和绿地维护方面的不平等，以及进入密歇根湖的机会较少等问题的影响，密歇根湖是该市的主要自然资源和娱乐设施。水印项目至少在两个方面促进了STEM的非正式学习。首先，虽然水印项目是为适应密尔沃基而设计的，但该项目包括制定一份适应性强的实施指南。该指南旨在使其他城市能够修改和利用其包容性的结构、规划和艺术家、科学家、合作组织和居民之间的合作程序，通过非正式的STEM学习和公共艺术的结合，促进全市公民对城市可持续发展的参与。其次，通过评估和研究，该项目将建立一个理论模型，研究科学学习、与艺术的接触以及城市社会生态系统中不同社区的独特背景之间的关系。评估重点包括：水印的实施如何支持项目社区的积极成果，以及为城市规模的关于城市环境的非正式科学学习开发一个可适应的模式？2.参与项目的社区居民经历的与结果相关的变化的类型和程度在项目地点之间和/或在项目地点之间的差异有多大？哪些因素(如果有的话)似乎与这些变化有关？3.水印项目的活动在多大程度上和以何种方式似乎对项目现场的位置体验产生了现场影响？该项目的研究问题包括：1.参与以视觉艺术活动为重点的步行活动如何影响关于城市水系统的非正式STEM学习的结果和经验？2.非正式STEM学习的结果和经验在不同的城市水主题、来自不同人口群体的参与者以及不同的社会文化和生物物理背景下如何变化？这个发展中的创新项目由威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校(UWM)领导，与城市作为生活实验室(CALL)和COSI研究和评估中心合作。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在(A)促进对非正式环境中STEM学习设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解；(B)为扩大获得和参与STEM学习体验提供多种途径；(C)推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估；以及(D)让所有年龄段的公众在非正式环境中学习STEM。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。

Milwaukee has established itself as a leader in water management and technology, hosting a widely recognized cluster of industrial, governmental, nonprofit, and academic activity focused on freshwater. At the same time, Milwaukee faces a wide range of challenges with freshwater, some unique to the region and others common to cities throughout the country. These challenges include vulnerability to flooding and combined sewer overflows after heavy rainfall, biological and pharmaceutical contamination in surface water, lead in drinking water infrastructure, and inequity in access to beaches and other recreational water amenities. As do other cities, Milwaukee grapples with the challenges for urban water imposed by global climate change, including changing patterns of precipitation and drought. These problems are further complicated by Milwaukee’s acute racial and economic residential segregation. With a population of approximately 595,000, embedded within a metropolitan area of over 1.5 million, Milwaukee remains one of the country’s most segregated cities. There is increasing urgency to engage the public—and especially those who are most vulnerable to environmental impacts—more deeply in the stewardship of urban water and in the task of creating sustainable urban futures. The primary goal of this four-year project is to foster community-engaged learning and environmental stewardship by developing a framework that integrates art with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) experiences along with geography, water management, and social science. Synergies between STEM learning and the arts suggest that collaborations among artists, scientists, and communities can open up ways to bring informal learning about the science of sustainability to communities. Project activities include artist/scientist/community member-led Walks, which are designed to engage multi-generational participants both from the neighborhoods and from across the city, in considering the conditions, characteristics, histories, and ecosystems of neighborhoods. Walks are expanded upon in Workshops with local residents, scientists/experts, and other stakeholders, and include exploring current water-related environmental challenges and proposing solutions. The Workshops draw on diverse perspectives, including lived experience, scientific knowledge, and policy expertise. Art Projects created by local artists amplify community engagement with the topics, including programming for teens and young adults. A website, and free Wi-Fi integrated into various Marker sites around the city, encourage users to pursue self-guided learning to explore the water systems and issues facing surrounding neighborhoods. Programming focuses primarily in Milwaukee’s predominantly African American near North Side and the predominantly Latinx/Hispanic near South Side. Many neighborhoods in these sections are vulnerable to such problems as frequent flooding, lead contamination in drinking water, inequities in safety and maintenance of green space, and less access to Lake Michigan, the city’s primary natural resource and recreational amenity.The WaterMarks project advances informal STEM learning in at least two ways. First, while the WaterMarks project is designed to fit Milwaukee, the project includes development of an adaptable implementation guide. The guide is designed so that other cities can modify and employ its inclusive structure, programming, and process of collaboration among artists, scientists, partner organizations, and residents to promote citywide civic engagement in urban sustainability through the combination of informal STEM learning and public art. Second, through evaluation and research, the project will build a theoretical model for the relationships among science learning, engagement with the arts, and the distinctive contexts of different neighborhoods within an urban social-ecological system. Evaluation foci include: How does the implementation of WaterMarks support positive outcomes for the project’s communities and the development of an adaptable model for city-scale informal science learning about urban environments? 2. To what extent do the type and degree of outcome-related change experienced by participating community residents vary across and/or between project sites? What factors, if any, appear to be linked to these changes? 3. To what extent and in what ways do the activities of the WaterMarks projects appear to have in situ effects related to the experience of place at project sites? The project’s research questions include: 1. How does participation in Walks focused on visual artistic activities affect outcomes and experiences of informal STEM learning about urban water systems? 2. How do outcomes and experiences of informal STEM learning vary across different urban water topics, participants from different demographic groups, and contrasting sociocultural and biophysical contexts?This Innovations in Development project is led by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), in collaboration with City as Living Laboratory (CALL) and the COSI Center for Research and Evaluation. The project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to (a) advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; (b) provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; (c) advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and (d) engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments.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.