CAREER: Integrating Robotics and Socio-emotional Learning for Incarcerated Middle School Students

美国有成千上万的青少年被关进了少年司法系统。该项目旨在通过在青少年司法替代教育项目中开发和调查机器人学习活动，为受限制的青少年提供新的选择。此外，教师需要准备好与参与少年司法系统的青少年一起工作，因此该项目还聘请了职前教师来指导青年参与者。机器人活动将包括社会情感学习的要素，包括学习负责任的决策、自我意识、社会意识以及与他人合作。该课程将激励这些学生重新接受教育，并有兴趣将STEM作为未来的职业。总的来说，该项目将为设计机器人学习体验和职前教师发展教学实践的机会提供信息。这个项目的目标是：1)开发一个基于社会情感学习原理的学期机器人项目，并将该项目提供给青少年司法系统中的中学生；2)培训本科职前教师在机器人教学中运用社会情感学习指导少年司法系统中学生。本研究将探讨参与社会情感学习机器人中学项目与参与学生stem认同的关系，并比较三个中学群体中参与学生的stem认同，其中两个是少年司法系统的一部分。关于整合机器人与社会情感学习这一学期项目的研究问题如下。参与少年司法系统的学生的stem身份是如何改变的？参与少年司法系统的学生的职业和教育兴趣如何？在青少年司法系统中参与的学生对教育需求的看法与参与该计划的更广泛的学生群体相比如何？参与拟议的计划是否与降低JJAEP学生作为禁闭青少年返回少年司法系统的比率有关？收集的数据包括对学生STEM职业兴趣和态度的调查，焦点小组，以及对他们在机器人活动中的工作的观察。这个职业项目的教育整合部分包括调查职前教师如何改变他们对青少年司法替代教育项目学生的看法，以及这种指导经历如何影响他们作为教师的工作。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持建立对实践、项目要素、背景和流程的理解，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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Hundreds of thousands of youth in the United States are involved in the juvenile justice system. This project seeks to provide new choices to confined youth by developing and investigating a robotics learning activities within a juvenile justice alternative education program. In addition, teachers need to be prepared to work with youth who have been involved in the juvenile justice system, so the project also engages pre-service teachers in mentoring the youth participants. The robotics activities will include elements of socio-emotional learning that includes learning about responsible decision-making, self-awareness, social awareness, and collaborating with other people. The curriculum will inspire these students to re-enter their education with an interest in pursuing STEM as a future career. Overall, the project will inform other efforts to design both robotics learning experiences and opportunities for pre-service teachers to develop their teaching practice.The goals of this project are to 1) develop a semester-long robotics program built on the principles of socio-emotional learning and deliver this program to middle school students in the juvenile justice system; 2) train undergraduate pre-service teachers to mentor middle school students in the juvenile justice system using socio-emotional learning in the instruction of robotics. The research will examine the relationship of participating in this socio-emotional learning robotics middle school program with the STEM-identity of participating students and compare the STEM-identity of participating students among three middle school populations, two of which are part of the juvenile justice system. The research questions about the semester-long program for integrating robotics and socio-emotional learning are as follows. How does the STEM-Identity of students involved in the juvenile justice system change? How do the career and educational interests of students who are involved in the juvenile justice system? How do the perceptions of students involved in the juvenile justice system with respect to the need for an education compare to a broader population of students following participation in this program? Is participation in the proposed program related to reduced rates of JJAEP students returning to the juvenile justice system as confined youth? Data gathered include surveys of students’ STEM career interests and attitudes, focus groups, and observation of their work on the robotics activities. The educational integration component of this CAREER project includes investigating how pre-service teachers change their perceptions of students in the juvenile justice alternative education program and how this mentoring experience influences their work as teachers.This CAREER 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.