Collaborative Research: Enhancing Underrepresented Student Engagement in STEM through Mentoring and Family Involvement

这个合作项目是一个非正式的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)干预项目，它将独特地将STEM与休斯顿大学(UH)教育教师之间的合作伙伴关系与参与者家庭和UH STEM本科生导师的指导结合在一起，为COLOR的四年级和五年级学生提供实践STEM体验。该项目旨在提高对STEM职业的认识和兴趣，以此作为扩大参与STEM职业的一种方式。主要项目将包括每周一次的实践活动，让学生通过工程设计过程接触技术，由本科生STEM导师领导，这些导师也来自STEM职业生涯中代表性较低的群体；本周科学家，让学生接触来自代表不足群体的STEM先驱，或来自行业合作伙伴的当前STEM专业人员；当天的数学问题，与四年级和五年级的州级标准一致；将指导这一混合方法项目的研究问题将包括：1)哪些策略有助于以肯定学生的种族认同和文化认知方式的方式概念化STEM知识？2)学生的STEM身份以及对STEM的认识和兴趣是如何随时间而改变的？3)家庭如何在校外STEM社区中参与他们孩子的STEM学习，以及4)家庭参与如何塑造学生对STEM的兴趣和他们的STEM身份？将收集和分析来自采访、观察和关于工程师身份和职业抱负的问卷调查的数据，以研究随着时间的推移可能发生的变化。该项目的研究将有助于建立关于家庭参与STEM学习的知识库，以及不同种族和族裔学生的STEM身份。具体地说，该团队将在他们之前对学生STEM身份和项目实施的研究的基础上，纵向研究学生的STEM身份，STEM身份的种族维度，以及不同学校地点的项目实施的差异性。该项目还将明确侧重于扩大色彩学院学生对STEM学习和职业的参与。在两年内，该项目将扩展到休斯顿地区的四所小学。在该奖项的时间表内，该项目每年将通过一年一度的互动STEM博览会，直接影响到COLOR的140名四年级和五年级学生，以及每个站点额外的50名学生和家庭。该项目还将直接吸引50名不同种族和族裔的STEM导师领导项目活动。这项工作的最终产品将是一个由原则性适应指导的方案模型，该模型将该项目定位于大规模实施。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 collaborative project is an informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) intervention that will uniquely combine partnerships between STEM and education faculty at the University of Houston (UH) with mentorship from the participants’ families and UH STEM undergraduate mentors to provide hands-on STEM experiences to fourth- and fifth-grade Students of Color. The project aims to increase awareness of and interest in STEM careers as a way to broaden participation in STEM careers. Key program components will include weekly hands-on activities that engage the students with technology through the engineering design process led by undergraduate STEM mentors who also are from groups underrepresented in STEM careers; the Scientist of the Week, which exposes students either to a STEM pioneer from underrepresented groups or a current STEM professional from an industry partner; the math problem of the day, which is aligned to state standards for fourth and fifth grades; and an end-of-year interactive STEM fair, during which students demonstrate their knowledge to larger audiences from their schools and communities.The research questions that will guide this mixed-methods project will include: 1) What strategies help conceptualize STEM knowledge in a manner that affirms students' racial identity and cultural ways of knowing? 2) How do students' STEM identity and awareness of and interest in STEM change over time? 3) How do families engage in their children’s STEM learning in out-of-school STEM communities, and 4) how does family participation shape students' interest in STEM and their STEM identity? Data from interviews, observations, and questionnaires on Engineering Identity and Career Aspirations will be gathered and analyzed to study possible changes over time. The project's research will contribute to the knowledge-base on family engagement in STEM learning and the STEM identities of racially and ethnically diverse students. Specifically, the team will build upon their prior research on students' STEM identity and program implementation by studying students' STEM identity longitudinally, the racial dimensions of STEM identity, and variability in program implementation across school sites. This project will also have an explicit focus on broadening participation in STEM studies and careers among Students of Color. Within two years, the project will expand to four elementary schools in the Houston region. During the timeline of this award, the project will directly impact 140 fourth and fifth grade Students of Color and an additional 50 students and families per site, per year through the annual interactive STEM fair. This project will also directly engage 50 racially and ethnically diverse STEM mentors who lead project activities. A final product of this work will be a program model guided by principled adaptation that positions the project for large-scale implementation. 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.