Actualizing STEM Potential in the Mississippi Delta

实现密西西比三角洲 STEM 潜力

• 批准号: 1511792
• 负责人: Brenda Brand
• 金额: $ 164.13万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-15 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1511792&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Actualizing; STEM; Potential; Mississippi; Delta

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by investigating the effectiveness of an existing collaborative robotics program. The program will positively influence the engineering self-efficacy and orientation to STEM majors with African American students living in an underserved region of the United States, the Mississippi Delta. Students in this program are immersed in engineering design activities requiring the application of science and mathematics principles. The program model includes pre-engineering courses in computer science, computer aided drafting, and electronics. These are designed and facilitated by university faculty. Undergraduate seniors are trained by faculty and then serve as mentors. Engineering design activities, career orientation activities and robotics summer camps for elementary and middle school students are facilitated by high school faculty. At the beginning of the spring semester, students participate in an international robotics competition. This robotics program is year-long and occurs after school, and halfway through the year students enter their designs in a robotics competition. Beginning in the freshmen year, students are allowed to remain in the program throughout their years in high school. An understanding of the components that positively influence the African American students' beliefs about their abilities in STEM disciplines and their perceptions of their identification with STEM could be useful for understanding and decreasing the gap in STEM majors that exists with students from underserved populations in the United States. This longitudinal mixed methods research study is designed to investigate the influence of engineering design and career orientation activities implemented in a collaborative robotics/pre-engineering program on African American students' self-efficacy, and scientific identity, to better understand factors influencing their achievement in STEM disciplines and orientation to STEM majors. This is a four year study, allowing the researchers to follow a group of students from freshman to the end of their senior year, so that key factors influencing the students' learning and achievement in the engineering course activities can be observed and documented during the peak years of decision making for college majors and careers. This study is unique in terms of its location and population of students, and because it is longitudinal and utilizes a mixed methods approach. While this study investigates the effectiveness of the program on the engineering self-efficacy, scientific identity and achievement of program objectives for students in this program, the findings of the study could also be valuable for informing initiatives devoted to increasing the numbers of students from other marginalized groups majoring in STEM fields. Quantitatively, this research employs pre and post measures to determine changes in students engineering self-efficacy and scientific identities. Qualitatively, field notes from classroom observations and interviews with the high school students provide data on specific program elements determined to be effective in positively influencing the African American students' achievement of program objectives and decisions to pursue STEM careers.

该项目将促进学生和教师（ITEST）计划的创新技术经验的努力，以更好地理解和促进实践，从而通过研究现有协作机器人技术计划的有效性来提高学生在科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域从事职业的动力和能力。该计划将积极影响工程学的自我效能和取向对STEM专业的影响，而非洲裔美国学生居住在美国密西西比三角洲的服务不足地区。 该计划中的学生沉浸在需要科学和数学原则的工程设计活动中。 该程序模型包括计算机科学，计算机辅助制图和电子产品的预设计课程。这些是由大学教师设计和促进的。本科生接受教师的培训，然后担任导师。高中教师为小学和中学生的工程设计活动，职业定向活动和机器人夏令营提供了便利。 在春季学期初，学生参加了国际机器人竞赛。 该机器人计划是为期一年的，发生在放学后，一年中的一年中的一年，学生参加了机器人竞赛。 从新生开始，允许学生在高中期间留在计划中。对积极影响非裔美国学生对他们在STEM学科能力的信念以及对STEM识别的看法的理解可能对理解和减少STEM专业的差距有用，STEM专业的差距与美国服务不足人群的学生存在。 这项纵向混合方法研究旨在研究在非裔美国学生的自我效能和科学认同方面实施的工程设计和职业定向活动的影响，以更好地理解影响其在STEM学科和茎专业方向上的成就的因素。 这是一项为期四年的研究，允许研究人员跟随一群从新生到高年级结束的学生，因此可以观察和记录影响学生在工程课程活动中的学习和成就的关键因素，并记录在大学少校的决策时期的高峰期。 这项研究在其位置和学生人群方面是独一无二的，并且是因为它是纵向的，并且使用了混合方法。 尽管这项研究调查了该计划对本计划中学生的工程自我效能，科学认同和计划目标的实现的有效性，但该研究的结果也可能很有价值，对于旨在提高专门用于增加STEM领域中其他边缘化群体的学生人数。定量地，本研究采用预科和后的措施来确定学生工程自我效能和科学身份的变化。 定性地，从课堂观察到的现场笔记和对高中生的访谈提供了有关确定有效影响非洲裔美国学生对计划目标和从事STEM职业的计划的实现的数据的数据。