PLUM RX: Researching a new pathway for bringing active science exploration to urban families

PLUM RX：研究将积极的科学探索带入城市家庭的新途径

• 批准号: 1516466
• 负责人: Marisa Wolsky
• 金额: $ 298.97万
• 依托单位: WGBH Educational Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1516466&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PLUM; RX; Researching; new; pathway

Capitalizing on the appeal of the PBS KIDS project PLUM LANDING, PLUM RX will research and develop resources to help families and educators infuse environmental science learning into outdoor prescription programs, while ensuring they are appropriate for broad use in other informal settings. The growing outdoor prescription movement is designed to increase the amount of time children spend outside in nature. Programs are structured so that health care providers write "prescriptions" for children to engage in outdoor activity, and informal educators "fill" these prescriptions by facilitating youth and family participation in outdoor activities. There is preliminary evidence that these programs are getting kids outside, but best practices for transitioning "get outside" programs to become "get outside and learn about the environment" programs remain unidentified. PLUM RX is designed to build this knowledge and create resources that are responsive to the needs of both English and Spanish-speaking urban families. The project will work with informal educators and families through multiple cycles of implementation and revision, testing and refining PLUM LANDING resources (animations, videos, games, hands-on science activities, and support materials for informal educators and families), with the goal of designing an effective and accessible PLUM RX Toolkit for national dissemination. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) learning in informal environments. The proposed research is designed to ensure that the PLUM RX Toolkit--the resources and support materials--will meet the needs of educators working in non-specialized urban settings. Education Development Center (EDC) and WGBH developers will collaborate on design-based research at three urban outdoor prescription programs serving low-income families: Philadelphia Nature Rx in Philadelphia, PA; Outdoors Rx in Boston, MA; and Portland Rx Play in Portland, OR. Moving through cycles of implementation, observation, analysis, and revision, the research team will work closely with educators, families, and developers to determine how the programmatic and structural features of the learning environment, the actions of the educators, and the intervention itself can most effectively support children and families' outdoor exploration in urban contexts. Toolkit materials will include resources for kids and families (including Spanish-speaking families) and informal educators (including those who work with families and directly with children in out-of-school settings). Directors from the three urban outdoor prescription programs will contribute to every phase of the research process, including recruiting families and youth who will participate in a weekly sequence of activities. The overarching focus of the analysis process will be on systematically describing the interaction between two dimensions of implementation: What happened during pilot implementations, and the factors that constrained or supported implementation as planned; and the quality of what happened, which will be defined with reference to the intended impacts. EDC will use a structured descriptive coding process to analyze the qualitative evidence gathered through interviews and observations during design and testing periods. Products of the research activities will include: a series of formative memos to the development team; a report mapping changes made to PLUM RX Toolkit materials in response to formative input and the intended impact of those changes; and findings regarding commonalities and differences across sites in the interaction of local contextual factors and the implementation success of the PLUM RX Toolkit. Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) will provide independent, summative evaluation of the project. Through this process, PLUM RX will build broader knowledge about how to design educational resources, geared for both families and informal educators, which respond to the unique challenges of exploring environmental science in urban environments.

利用PBS儿童项目Plum Landing的吸引力，Plum RX将研究和开发资源，以帮助家庭和教育者将环境科学学习注入户外处方计划，同时确保它们适合在其他非正式环境中进行广泛使用。不断增长的户外处方运动旨在增加儿童在自然界外花费的时间。计划的结构化，以便医疗保健提供者为儿童撰写“处方”，以便从事户外活动，而非正式的教育者“通过促进青年和家庭参与户外活动来填写“这些处方”。有初步的证据表明，这些计划正在让孩子们外出，但是过渡“进入外部”计划的最佳实践成为“走出外面并了解环境”计划的计划仍然不明。 Plum RX旨在建立这些知识并创造对英语和西班牙语城市家庭需求的响应的资源。 该项目将通过多个实施和修订，测试和完善梅花着陆资源（动画，视频，游戏，动手科学活动以及为非正式教育者和家庭提供支持材料）与非正式教育者和家庭合作，目的是设计有效且可访问的全国性易易李子RX工具包。 该项目是由非正式的STEM学习（AISL）计划资助的，该计划旨在推进对STEM（科学，技术，工程，数学）学习在非正式环境中的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。 拟议的研究旨在确保李子RX工具包（资源和支持材料）将满足在非特殊城市环境中工作的教育工作者的需求。教育开发中心（EDC）和WGBH开发人员将在为低收入家庭提供服务的三个城市户外处方计划上进行基于设计的研究：宾夕法尼亚州费城的费城自然RX；马萨诸塞州波士顿的户外RX；和波特兰RX在俄勒冈州波特兰的比赛。 研究团队通过实施，观察，分析和修订的循环，将与教育者，家庭和开发人员紧密合作，以确定学习环境的程序和结构特征如何，教育工作者的行动以及干预本身可以最有效地支持儿童和家庭在城市环境中的户外探索。工具包材料将包括儿童和家庭（包括讲西班牙语的家庭）和非正式教育者（包括与家人一起工作的人以及直接与儿童一起在校外工作的人）的资源。来自三个Urban户外处方计划的董事将为研究过程的每个阶段做出贡献，包括招募将每周参加活动序列的家庭和青年。分析过程的总体重点将放在系统地描述实施两个维度之间的相互作用：试点实施过程中发生了什么以及按计划限制或支持实施的因素；以及发生的事情的质量，将根据预期的影响来定义。 EDC将使用结构化的描述性编码过程来分析通过设计和测试期间的访谈和观察收集的定性证据。研究活动的产品将包括：向开发团队的一系列形成备忘录；对李子Rx工具包进行的报告映射更改，以响应形成性输入和这些变化的预期影响；以及有关局部上下文因素相互作用的共同点和差异的发现以及李子Rx工具包的实施成功。 协和评估小组（CEG）将对项目提供独立的总结性评估。 通过此过程，Plum RX将建立有关如何设计教育资源的广泛知识，该教育资源适合家庭和非正式教育者，这应对探索城市环境中环境科学的独特挑战。