CAREER: Developing a Participatory Model for Elementary Science for Community Change

小学生需要机会看到科学对他们的生活有意义和相关。增加这种相关性的一种方法是利用基于社区的问题和调查的学习经验，这些问题和调查是学生自己识别和执行的。这个项目的一个重要贡献是调查与文化相关的、以社区为基础的科学课程如何有助于在城市小学课堂上肯定和发展黑人学生的科学身份。该项目将与三、四、五年级的小学教师合作，创造和调查这样的学习经历。计划中的合作伙伴是底特律的一所公立特许学校。这项研究将记录教师和学生如何识别和探索从当地社区背景中提取的科学问题，并利用他们的调查结果来实施当地社区的变化。该项目将开发资源，帮助教师在自己的社区为小学生创造类似的体验。该项目的目标是与黑人小学青年一起设计公平、文化相关和以社区为中心的科学学习，并了解学习经历如何影响他们的多重身份，特别是他们对科学的倾向。这项工作使用青年参与性科学模式，让学生和教师参与以社区为基础的科学研究周期。青年参与式科学模式让学生识别基于社区的问题，使用科学调查来分析和理解这些问题，然后与更广泛的社区分享他们的发现。该项目的一个重大贡献是将这一模式从中学科学课堂改编到小学。本研究将解决以下研究问题。首先，公正和以社区为中心的科学课程如何影响城市学校中黑人小学生的种族、科学和学术身份？第二，通过科学认同教学，黑人小学生如何看待自己是科学共同体中的积极参与者？这项研究将包括一系列定性数据，以记录课程设计和学生和教师的经验。该项目包括与一所小学和总部设在底特律的社区组织黑人男性教育者联盟合作，开发和分享由此产生的科学课程。该职业项目由STEM教育中的种族平等计划(EDU Race Equity)资助。该计划支持通过研究和实践促进STEM教育和劳动力发展中的种族平等的项目。该奖项还由发现研究PREK-12计划(DRK-12)资助，该计划旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高PREK-12学生和教师的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。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。

Elementary students need opportunities to see science as meaningful and relevant to their lives. One way to increase this relevance is with learning experiences that are grounded in community-based questions and inquiries that students identify and carry out themselves. An important contribution of this project is investigating how culturally relevant and community-based science curriculum helps to affirm and develop Black students’ science identities in an urban, elementary classroom. This project will partner with third, fourth and fifth-grade elementary teachers to create and to investigate such learning experiences. The planned partner for the collaboration is a public, charter school in Detroit. The research will document how teachers and students identify and explore science questions that are drawn from their local community context and use the results of their inquiries to enact local community change. The project will develop resources to help teachers create similar experiences for elementary students in their own communities. The goal of this project is to design equitable, culturally relevant and community-centered science learning with Black elementary-aged youth and to understand how the learning experience influences their multiple identities, specifically their disposition toward science. This work uses the youth participatory science model to engage students and teachers in the cycle of community-based scientific inquiry. The youth participatory science model engages students in identifying community-based issues, using scientific inquiry to analyze and understand those issues, and then sharing their findings with the broader community. A significant contribution of the project is the adaptation of this model from secondary science classrooms to elementary school. This research will address the following research questions. First, how does a justice and community-centered science curriculum impact the racial, science, and academic identities of Black elementary students within an urban school? Second, through engaging in identity-affirming science instruction, how do Black elementary students view themselves as active participants within the scientific community? The research will include a range of qualitative data to document the design of the curriculum and the experiences of students and teachers. The project includes a partnership with an elementary school and the Black Male Educator Alliance, a community organization based in Detroit, to develop and share the resulting science curriculum.This CAREER project is funded by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EDU Racial Equity). The program supports projects that advance racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through research and practice. This award is also funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.