NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Exploring a Collaborative Model for Broadening Participation in STEM through Digital Fabrication and Making

NSF 包括规划拨款：探索通过数字制造和制作扩大 STEM 参与的合作模式

• 批准号: 2012790
• 负责人: Sherry Lassiter
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: The Fab Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2012790&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; INCLUDES; Planning; Grant; Exploring

Over the past two decades, thousands of makerspaces, fabrication labs, and digital fabrication spaces have emerged. From libraries and science centers to institutions of higher education, the “Maker Movement” continues to gain momentum and is recognized globally as being at the nexus of technology, innovation, and education. This mounting interest may be in part due to promising findings from extant research. Prevailing studies show meaningful engagement in making and digital fabrication can result in marked positive outcomes in STEM interest and careers, especially in engineering and manufacturing fields. Some studies have also shown that while outcomes are generally positive, there continues to be a diverse community of learners who appear to be under-engaged and or excluded from participation. This planning grant will address this gap by creating and fostering a diverse coalition of organizations to work together, and with their respective networks of influence, to design for and promote innovative, accessible, inclusive, and equitable high-quality STEM learning environments for all learners through the lens of making and digital fabrication. Through a multi-modal, lived cultural experience framework, the coalition hopes to develop a plan for a strategic, coherent and scalable approach that moves the bar significantly forward in addressing equity in STEM. The effort brings together key stakeholders in the Maker, Fab Lab, Digital Fabrication, and STEM Education movements to create a shared vision and action plan that ignites a broader, more inclusive group of stakeholders in education, both formal and informal. The initial cohort of organizations will include the key national and international organizations Citizen Schools, Digital Promise, Fab Foundation, FabLearn, Maker Ed and Nation of Makers to begin the process of creating a shared vision, and communicating that vision throughout their networks to a broader and more diverse community of stakeholders. During the one-year project duration, project partners will leverage existing expertise and networks to work collectively to identify and pioneer effective culturally relevant making practices and policies that increase STEM engagement and success among underrepresented groups. Efforts will be centered on two of the five NSF INCLUDES design elements of collaborative infrastructure: Shared Vision and Leadership and Communication. In tandem with developing a common agenda, the Shared Vision component will include several reinforcing activities: (1) map and analyze relevant current programming, (2) establish a set of agreed upon equity and inclusion specific definitions, (3) identify strategies for recognizing existing funds of knowledge among learners, and (4) develop a strategic plan of action. Reinforcing activities for the Leadership and Communication component will include: (1) the establishment of a collaborative support model and operations protocol, (2) documentation and exchange of practices across organizational programming, and (3) a joint publication/policy white paper on the state of broadening participation in making and digital fabrication contexts. To ground this work, an equity and inclusion workshop will be held for partner organizations to promote shared understanding and collective impact. In addition, intentional connections will be made to the NSF INCLUDES National Network through knowledge, data, and resource sharing, networking, and participation in the online community. If successful, this planning grant has the potential to lay a strong foundation for a future large-scale center, alliance, or network focused on broadening participation in STEM through making and digital fabrication. This planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale.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.

在过去的二十年中，出现了成千上万的创客空间，制造实验室和数字制造空间。从图书馆和科学中心到高等教育机构，“制造商运动”继续获得动力，在全球范围内被认为是技术，创新和教育的联系。这种不断增长的兴趣可能部分是由于额外研究的有希望的发现。流行研究表明，在制作和数字制造方面有意义的参与可能会导致STEM兴趣和职业的显着积极成果，尤其是工程和制造领域。一些研究还表明，尽管结果通常是积极的，但仍有一个不同的学习者社区似乎没有参与并被排除在参与之外。这项计划赠款将通过创建和培养组织不同的组织共同努力，以及各自的影响力网络，为所有学习者通过制造和数字化镜头为所有学习者设计创新，易于访问，包容和公平的高质量的STEM学习环境，来解决这一差距。通过一个多模式，现场的文化体验框架，联盟希望制定一个战略，连贯和可扩展的方法的计划，该方法在解决STEM中的股权方面显着前进。这项努力汇集了制造商，工厂实验室，数字制造和STEM教育运动中的关键利益相关者，以制定共同的愿景和行动计划，该计划点燃了一个更广泛，更具包容性的利益相关者，包括正式和非正式的教育。最初的组织将包括关键的国家和国际组织公民学校，数字承诺，Fab Foundation，Fabrearn，Maker Ed和制造商国家，开始建立共同的愿景，并将整个网络中的愿景传达给更广泛，更多样化的利益相关者社区。在为期一年的项目期限内，项目合作伙伴将利用现有的专业知识和网络共同努力，以确定和开拓有效的文化相关的制作实践和政策，从而增加代表性不足的群体中的STEM参与度和成功。努力将集中于五个NSF中的两个，其中包括协作基础设施的设计元素：共享的愿景，领导和沟通。与开发一个共同的Agernda同时，共享的视觉组成部分将包括几个加强活动：（1）映射和分析相关的当前编程，（2）建立一组商定的公平性和包容性特定定义，（3）确定识别学习者中现有知识资金的策略，以及（4）制定策略性行动计划。加强领导力和沟通组成部分的活动将包括：（1）建立协作支持模型和运营协议，（2）跨组织编程的文档和实践交流，以及（3）有关扩大制造和数字制造环境的共同出版物/政策白皮书。为了依据这项工作，将举办一个公平和包容性研讨会，供合作伙伴组织促进共同的理解和集体影响。此外，将通过知识，数据和资源共享，网络和参与在线社区的知识，数据和资源共享，网络和参与来包括国家网络。如果成功的话，这项计划赠款将有可能为未来的大规模中心，联盟或网络奠定坚实的基础，以通过制造和数字制造来扩大参与STEM的参与。 This planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national Initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed precious of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts审查标准。