The Young Black Girl: Influencing Science Interest and Commitment to STEM through the Merging of Lived Experiences of Learners in an Out-of-School Program

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。黑人女性在STEM职业中所占比例最小。3至14岁的女孩，无论种族，认为科学职业无法实现的比例高于其他群体，因为她们认为这些职业不适合女孩。先前的研究还表明，影响黑人女孩考虑STEM专业和职业的因素包括对正在学习的科学的兴趣，学习者自己的认同感，以及兴趣是否可以持续。该项目旨在开发一个非正式的学习计划，旨在通过黑人女孩告诉STEM教育工作者和研究人员有关推动他们的兴趣和参与的科学活动的场所。相关研究将研究黑人女孩的生活经历与她们追求STEM职业的兴趣之间的联系。与学生的生活经验建立“联系”有可能减少历史上被边缘化的学生在参与STEM方面的科学成就差距。这项研究的前提是，通过生活经验与科学联系有可能支持黑人女孩对科学的持续兴趣，从而增加她们在STEM领域从事职业的潜力。在这项研究中开发的校外课程将纳入使用低成本科学用品的活动，从而增加课程在其他情况下的潜在用途。 这项研究将招募黑人女孩在四到六年级与不同程度的兴趣在干参加夏令营。在夏令营期间，参与者将探索工程，数学和物理科学领域，并学习使用乘法和加法比较，对物质和声音进行调查，并使用工程设计过程和科学探究与他们的现实生活联系起来。生活经验是经验，通过这些经验获得的知识，以及这些经验告知个人不断发展的文化的方式。此外，参与者的监护人是他们生活经历的重要组成部分。该研究将采用关/开/关的单一案例方法，定量分析调查，定性分析观察，访谈和文物。为了对结果数据进行分析，该研究将采用一个框架，试图了解社会如何沿着性别、种族、阶级和其他形式的社会等级制度的交叉线组织起来。该项目响应了STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（干艾德PRF）计划，旨在提高研究知识，技能，并在干，干教育，教育，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是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的支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Black women make up the smallest percentage of persons in STEM careers. Girls aged three through fourteen years old, regardless of ethnicity, consider science occupations as unachievable at higher rates than other groups because they sense that these occupations are inappropriate for girls. Prior research also indicates that factors influencing Black girls to consider STEM majors and careers include interest in the science being studied, the learner's own sense of identity, and whether interest can be sustained. This project aims to develop an informal learning program designed as a venue through which Black girls tell STEM educators and researchers about the science activities that propel their interests and participation. The associated study will examine connections between Black girls’ lived experiences and their interest in pursuing STEM careers. Making a “connection” to students’ lived experiences has the potential to decrease the science achievement gap for students historically marginalized in their participation in STEM. The study’s premise is that connecting to science through lived experiences has the potential to support Black girls’ sustained interest in science, and thus increase the potential for them to pursue careers in STEM. The out-of-school program developed in this study will incorporate activities that use low-cost science supplies thereby increasing the curriculum’s potential use in other contexts. This study will recruit Black girls in fourth through sixth grades with various levels of interest in STEM for participation in a summer camp. During the camp, participants will explore the fields of engineering, mathematics, and physical science and learn to use multiplicative and additive comparisons, conduct investigations about matter and sound, and use engineering design processes and scientific inquiry to make connections to their real-life lived experiences. Lived experiences are the experiences, knowledge gained through those experiences, and the ways these experiences inform an individual’s evolving culture. Additionally, participant’s guardians are an important part of their lived experiences. The research study will employ a single-case methodology of off/on/off, quantitatively analyzing surveys and qualitatively analyzing observations, interviews, and artifacts. To inform the analysis of resulting data, the study will adopt a framework of seeking to understand how society organizes itself along intersecting lines of gender, race, class, and other forms of social hierarchies.The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.