Collaborative Research: Enhancing Underrepresented Student Engagement in STEM through Mentoring and Family Involvement

合作研究：通过指导和家庭参与提高代表性不足的学生对 STEM 的参与

• 批准号: 2148561
• 负责人: James Holly Jr
• 金额: $ 6.04万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2027-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2148561&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Enhancing; Underrepresented; Student

This collaborative project is an informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) intervention that will uniquely combine partnerships between STEM and education faculty at the University of Houston (UH) with mentorship from the participants’ families and UH STEM undergraduate mentors to provide hands-on STEM experiences to fourth- and fifth-grade Students of Color. The project aims to increase awareness of and interest in STEM careers as a way to broaden participation in STEM careers. Key program components will include weekly hands-on activities that engage the students with technology through the engineering design process led by undergraduate STEM mentors who also are from groups underrepresented in STEM careers; the Scientist of the Week, which exposes students either to a STEM pioneer from underrepresented groups or a current STEM professional from an industry partner; the math problem of the day, which is aligned to state standards for fourth and fifth grades; and an end-of-year interactive STEM fair, during which students demonstrate their knowledge to larger audiences from their schools and communities.The research questions that will guide this mixed-methods project will include: 1) What strategies help conceptualize STEM knowledge in a manner that affirms students' racial identity and cultural ways of knowing? 2) How do students' STEM identity and awareness of and interest in STEM change over time? 3) How do families engage in their children’s STEM learning in out-of-school STEM communities, and 4) how does family participation shape students' interest in STEM and their STEM identity? Data from interviews, observations, and questionnaires on Engineering Identity and Career Aspirations will be gathered and analyzed to study possible changes over time. The project's research will contribute to the knowledge-base on family engagement in STEM learning and the STEM identities of racially and ethnically diverse students. Specifically, the team will build upon their prior research on students' STEM identity and program implementation by studying students' STEM identity longitudinally, the racial dimensions of STEM identity, and variability in program implementation across school sites. This project will also have an explicit focus on broadening participation in STEM studies and careers among Students of Color. Within two years, the project will expand to four elementary schools in the Houston region. During the timeline of this award, the project will directly impact 140 fourth and fifth grade Students of Color and an additional 50 students and families per site, per year through the annual interactive STEM fair. This project will also directly engage 50 racially and ethnically diverse STEM mentors who lead project activities. A final product of this work will be a program model guided by principled adaptation that positions the project for large-scale implementation. 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.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.

该协作项目是一个非正式的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）干预措施，将在休斯顿大学（UH）的STEM和教育教师之间的伙伴关系与参与者家人的心态以及UH STEM本科生的心态相结合，以提供动手的STEM经验到四分之二和五年级的颜色。该项目旨在提高人们对STEM职业的认识和兴趣，以扩大参与STEM职业的一种方式。关键计划组件将包括每周的动手活动，通过由本科STEM导师领导的工程设计过程吸引学生进行技术，这些工程设计过程也来自STEM职业的人数不足的团体；本周的科学家将学生带到了代表性不足的群体的STEM先驱，或者是行业伙伴的当前STEM专业人士；当天的数学问题与国家标准相符，持续了四年级和五年级；以及一个年终互动式STEM博览会，在此期间，学生向学校和社区的较大听众展示了他们的知识。指导该混合方法项目的研究问题将包括：1）哪些策略有助于以确认学生的种族认同和文化认识的方式概念化STEM知识？ 2）学生对STEM的STEM身份以及对STEM的兴趣的意识如何随着时间而变化？ 3）家庭如何在校外STEM社区中从事孩子的STEM学习，4）家庭参与如何影响学生对STEM及其STEM身份的兴趣？将收集和分析有关工程认同和职业愿望的访谈，观察和问卷调查的数据，以研究随着时间的推移可能发生的变化。该项目的研究将有助于对STEM学习的家庭参与以及大致和种族多元化的学生的STEM身份的知识基础。具体而言，团队将通过纵向研究学生的STEM身份，STEM身份的种族维度以及跨学校站点的计划实施方案的可变性来基于他们对学生STEM身份和计划实施的先前研究。该项目还将明确专注于扩大有色学生的STEM研究和职业的参与。在两年内，该项目将扩展到休斯顿地区的四所小学。在该奖项的时间表期间，该项目将直接影响140名彩色学生的四年级和五年级学生，每年通过年度互动式STEM展览会每年增加50名学生和家庭。该项目还将直接参与50个领导项目活动的很少和种族多样的STEM导师。这项工作的最终产品将是以主要适应为指导的计划模型，该项目将项目定位为大规模实施。该项目由学生和教师（ITEST）计划的创新技术经验资助，该计划支持对实践，计划要素，环境，环境和过程的理解，从而有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程和数学和数学（STEM）的知识和兴趣的促进知识和兴趣（STEM）以及通过评估NSF的INFORLICTIONT INFRATIONT INTERCTAUTION INFINCTIRAL。和更广泛的影响审查标准。