Expanding Activities for Outdoor, Nature Situated Making

明尼苏达科学博物馆（SMM）将与四个社区组织合作，为黑人、土著和有色人种（BIPOC）观众提供服务，研究和开发一个新颖的户外创客空间，让家庭参与STEM学习。创客空间是一个人们共同致力于创造性的、兴趣驱动的项目的地方。在与BIPOC家庭的合作中，该项目解决了三种形式的历史（和当今）排斥社区参与者的问题，包括参与非正式学习经验的设计，参与此类活动以及全面参与STEM。该项目旨在通过与当地社区的大力合作，在户外创客空间使用天然材料开展促进STEM学习的活动。该项目将在SMM产生一个户外创客空间，将包括3-4个设置（总面积约2500平方英尺），在户外环境中容纳和支持多种制作活动。 拟议的工作将通过探索BIPOC家庭如何定义创客空间的学习以及年幼的孩子如何充分参与家庭学习来促进知识的发展。该项目将与其他博物馆、创客教育者和其他社区组织分享通过这项工作开发的包容性设计和社区合作实践，这些组织可以以尊重和反映BIPOC家庭观点的方式开发或扩大自己的户外创客空间。BIPOC家庭将加入博物馆工作人员，作为户外创客空间开发和迭代的贡献者，以及通用设计原则开发和研究传播的合作者。参与户外创客空间，调查和与社区合作伙伴的设计会议的备忘录的访问者捕获的视频作为户外非正式科学教育空间的设计和开发与社区需求和价值观相一致的过程的基础。所有的研究活动将由一个文化响应的研究框架指导，并使用战略，以确保多元文化的有效性，如视频意义与家庭研究参与者和成员检查工具，数据分析，并与设计合作伙伴的结果。项目研究将解决三个问题：（1）在户外自然环境下的创客空间中，家庭学习的特点是什么，包括BIPOC家庭如何识别和描述STEM学习，以及如何建立户外空间来支持BIPOC家庭的观点？(2)如何建立空间来支持多年龄家庭参与制作，包括关注哪些设计元素支持学前学习者的参与和其他家庭成员的持续参与？以及（3）使用广泛可用的材料制作的设计原则如何从室内转换到室外空间和材料？研究成果、设计原则和社区参与指南将广泛传播给研究人员、设计人员、方案开发人员、非正式科学机构和社区组织。该研究项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在（a）推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解;（B）提供多种途径，以扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与;（c）推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估;（d）促进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究。和（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，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will collaborate with four community organizations serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) audiences to research and develop a novel outdoor makerspace that engages families in STEM learning. A makerspace is a place where people work together on creative, interest driven projects. In working with BIPOC families, the project addresses three forms of historical (and present day) exclusion of community participants, including participation in the design of informal learning experiences, participation in such activities, and overall engagement in STEM. The project aims to develop activities that foster STEM learning using natural materials in an outdoor makerspace, informed through robust collaboration with local communities. This project will result in an outdoor makerspace at SMM that will include 3-4 settings (approximately 2500 square feet total) that house and support multiple making activities in an outdoor context. The proposed work will contribute to advancing knowledge through exploring how BIPOC families define learning in makerspaces and how younger children can be fully engaged in family learning. The project will share the inclusive design and community collaboration practices developed through this work with other museums, maker educators, and other community organizations that can develop or expand their own outdoor makerspaces in ways that will respect and reflect BIPOC families’ perspectives. BIPOC families will join museum staff as contributors in the development and iteration of an outdoor makerspace and collaborators in the development of generalized design principles and dissemination of the research. Visitor-captured video of engagement in the outdoor makerspace, surveys, and memos from design meetings with community partners serve as the foundation for the process of aligning design and development of outdoor informal science education spaces with community needs and values. All research activities will be guided by a culturally responsive research framework and use strategies to ensure the multicultural validity such as video meaning-making with family research participants and member-checking instruments, data analyses, and findings with Design Partners. Project research will address three questions: (1) What are the characteristics of family learning in an outdoor nature-situated makerspace, including how BIPOC families identify and describe STEM learning and how outdoor spaces can be built to support BIPOC families’ perspectives? (2) How can the space be built to support multi-age families to engaged in making, including a focus on what design elements support preschool learner’s engagement and sustained participation by other family members? and (3) How do the design principles for making with widely available materials translate from indoor to outdoor spaces and materials? Research findings, design principles and community engagement guides will be widely disseminated to researchers, designers, program developers, informal science institutions and community organizations. This research 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 environmentsThis 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.