Equity-Centered Design of Conversational Agents for Inclusive Science Communication Education in High Schools

科学传播被定义为向广大受众传播科学概念和发现的能力，是一项重要的科学素养技能。它可以促进公众努力保护世界各地社区的生物多样性和生计。然而，K-12学生参与包容性科学交流方法的机会有限，这些方法结合了他们的生活经验，并考虑到潜在受众的不同社会经济、语言和文化背景。该项目将让加利福尼亚州奥兰治县以拉丁裔为主的第一标题学校的高中生参加人工智能指导的科学课程，学习和实践包容性科学传播和海洋生物多样性。学生将与代表当地海洋生态系统不同社区观点的对话代理进行互动。他们还将与同行合作，培训和创建自己的对话代理，以分享对海洋保护的看法。项目活动旨在提供有意义的参与，以加深学生对科学交流的理解，人工智能素养，以及对人工智能和更广泛的科学领域职业的兴趣。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。该项目将与加利福尼亚州奥兰治县的非营利性环境组织Crystal Cove Protection合作，邀请学生、正式和非正式的教育工作者、社区成员和海洋科学家共同设计对话代理的界面和交换。项目团队将采访更多的社区成员，以整合他们的观点来完善代理的对话。9-11年级的90名学生将参加人工智能指导的课程。来自加州大学欧文分校和犹他州立大学的STEM教育和教育技术研究人员将探索围绕公平伙伴关系和学习的研究问题，包括(1)如何以公平、协作的方式促进与非正式教育工作者、社区合作伙伴和学生共同设计和实施对话代理？(2)人工智能集成课程如何支持关于环境系统、对STEM职业的兴趣和人工智能素养的包容性科学交流？以及(3)教师如何进行教学调整以促进这些学习成果？该项目将借鉴以公平为中心的研究-实践伙伴关系和设计张力框架，以回答有关如何促进公平设计工作和调整教学课程的研究问题。回归分析将被用来检验这一假设，即学生在科学交流、对STEM职业的兴趣和人工智能素养方面显著提高，正如前后评估所表明的那样。这项工作的成果包括(1)围绕包容性科学交流的创新的人工智能集成高中课程，(2)与社区成员合作开发技术的共同设计原则，以及(3)学生构建的对话语料库，以在STEM背景下培训未来的对话主体。这项研究在支持不同K-12人群的人工智能集成教育新兴领域迈出了重要的进步步伐，以深化科学和人工智能素养。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。

Science communication, defined as the ability to communicate scientific concepts and discoveries to broad audiences, is an important scientific literacy skill. It can promote public efforts to protect the biodiversity and livelihood of communities around the world. Yet, K-12 students have limited opportunities to engage in inclusive science communication approaches that incorporate their lived experiences and account for the diverse socioeconomic, language, and cultural backgrounds of potential audiences. This project will engage high school students from predominantly Latinx, Title I schools in Orange County, California, in an AI-guided science curriculum for learning and practicing inclusive science communication and marine biodiversity. Students will interact with conversational agents that represent different community perspectives around the local marine ecosystems. They will also collaborate with peers to train and create their own conversational agents to share views on marine conservation. Project activities aim to offer meaningful engagement to deepen students’ understanding of science communication, AI literacy, and interest in careers in AI and broader science fields. 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.In partnership with Crystal Cove Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit in Orange County, California, the project will invite students, formal and informal educators, community members, and marine scientists to co-design the conversational agents’ interface and exchange. The project team will interview additional community members to integrate their perspectives to refine the agents’ dialogues. 90 students in grades 9-11 will engage in the AI-guided curriculum. Researchers in STEM education and education technologies from University of California, Irvine and Utah State University will explore research questions surrounding Equitable Partnership and Learning including (1) How can the co-design and implementation of conversational agents with informal educators, community partners, and students be facilitated in equitable, collaborative ways?, (2) How does the AI-integrated curriculum support inclusive science communication about environmental systems, interest in STEM careers, and AI literacy?, and (3) What instructional adaptations do teachers make to facilitate these learning outcomes? The project will draw from equity-centered research-practice partnership and design tension frameworks to answer research questions around how to facilitate equitable design work and adapt the curriculum in instruction. Regression analyses will be used to test the hypothesis that students significantly improve in science communication, interest in STEM careers, and AI literacy, as indicated by pre- and post-assessments. The outcomes of this work include (1) an innovative AI-integrated high school curriculum around inclusive science communication, (2) co-design principles to collaborate with community members to develop the technology, and (3) a student-constructed language corpus of conversations to train future conversational agents in STEM contexts. The research takes important advancing steps in the emerging field of AI-integrated education supporting diverse K-12 populations to deepen scientific and AI literacy.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.