Collaborative Research: Research: Agency in Chemical Engineering Experiments

合作研究：研究：化学工程实验机构

基本信息

批准号：
2203231
负责人：
Stephanie Wettstein
金额：
$ 17.69万
依托单位：
Montana State University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2023-02-01 至 2026-01-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2203231&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Agency Chemical Engineering

项目摘要

The Agency in Chemical Engineering Experiments (ACEE) project will investigate how different approaches to teaching laboratory experiments impact students’ learning and development as chemical engineers. Laboratory experiments play a key role in the professional formation of chemical engineers, who use experiments in industry to develop innovative products, in research to conduct studies, and in design to gather information and test solutions. Yet at many institutions, laboratory courses have remained relatively unchanged, and modernizing efforts have primarily focused on updating equipment, content, and procedures. There are many different decisions students could make — in other words, many ways they could have agency — from choosing variables to choosing which audience to report their results to. This project will evaluate the effect of giving students differing levels of agency throughout the experiment on the students’ lab experience. The ACEE project will study chemical engineering laboratory courses at the University of New Mexico and Montana State University to better understand how such courses can better support student development toward independent problem-solving and communication, thus producing graduates better prepared for the challenges of professional engineering. The primary aim of the ACEE project is to extend theory about how consequential agency functions to support learning and engineering identity. Past research has connected agency, learning, and identity, and provided insights into both benefits of and barriers to high-agency learning experiences. To identify experiences critical to professional formation, the ACEE Project will investigate students’ agency in four domains: (1) experimental design prior to doing the lab; (2) experimental oversight during the lab, including variables to manipulate, data collection frequency, and documentation during their experiments; (3) data analysis and interpretation; and (4) communication of their purpose, methods, and conclusions. This project extends recent research on agency to answer the following research questions: (1) To what extent do existing laboratory experiments offer students consequential agency in the four domains (i.e., experimental design, experimental oversight, data analysis, communication)? (2) To what extent does perceived consequential agency in the four domains contribute to students’ sense of belonging in engineering/engineering identity and learning how to design and report experiments? (3) Across these, are there differences between minoritized and privileged groups? The team will examine the agency students might have, differentiating between lower agency and consequential agency, which is defined as having and taking up opportunities to make decisions that are consequential to how students learn, to what students learn, and to the learning activities themselves. In the context of a laboratory experiment, this means that students can make decisions that affect later steps of their work; for instance, if students choose some parameters of their experiment, this impacts the data they collect and the kinds of analysis they will do. The ACEE Project will investigate existing upper-division, undergraduate laboratory experiments across two chemical engineering programs which will offer a chance to conduct comparisons of various existing and common teaching approaches. Students’ opportunities for consequential agency in specific domains will be assessed using the Agency Levels in Learning Opportunities Tool (ALLOT) while students’ perceptions of agency and engineering identity will be measured using surveys. By answering the proposed questions, the ACEE Project will extend a more nuanced understanding of the criticality of agency in the conjoined learning/identity-formation process.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.

化学工程实验机构 (ACEE) 项目将研究不同的实验室实验教学方法如何影响学生的学习和发展，因为实验室实验在化学工程师的专业形成中发挥着关键作用，化学工程师利用工业实验来发展。然而，在许多机构，实验室课程相对保持不变，现代化工作主要集中在更新设备、内容和程序上。学生可以做出的决定——换句话说，他们可以通过多种方式做出决定代理——从选择变量到选择向哪些受众报告结果该项目将评估在整个实验过程中给予学生不同级别的代理对学生实验室体验的影响。新墨西哥州和蒙大拿州立大学的项目旨在更好地了解此类课程如何更好地支持学生独立解决问题和沟通的发展，从而使毕业生更好地应对专业工程的挑战。ACEE 项目的主要目的是扩展有关的理论。相应的机构如何发挥作用来支持学习和工程认同。研究将能动性、学习和身份联系起来，并深入了解了高能动性学习经历的好处和障碍。为了确定对专业形成至关重要的经历，ACEE 项目将在四个领域调查学生的能动性：(1) 实验性的。进行实验室之前的设计；(2) 实验室期间的实验监督，包括实验期间的操作变量、数据收集频率和记录；(3) 数据分析和解释；(4) 交流其目的、方法；该项目扩展了最近对代理的研究，以回答以下研究。问题：（1）现有实验室实验在多大程度上为学生提供了四个领域（即实验设计、实验监督、数据分析、交流）的后果性机构？（2）感知到的后果性机构在这四个领域的贡献有多大？ (3) 在这些方面，少数群体和特权群体之间是否存在差异？团队将检查学生可能拥有的能动性，区分较低的能动性和后果性的代理，被定义为拥有并抓住机会做出对学生如何学习、学习什么以及学习活动本身有影响的决定。在实验室实验的背景下，这意味着学生可以做出以下决定：影响他们工作的后续步骤；例如，如果学生选择实验的某些参数，这会影响他们收集的数据以及他们将进行的分析类型，ACEE 项目将调查两个化学领域现有的高年级本科生实验室实验。工程项目将提供一个机会来进行各种比较现有和常见的教学方法。将使用学习机会工具中的代理级别（ALLOT）评估学生在特定领域的相应代理机会，同时将通过回答所提出的问题来衡量学生对代理和工程身份的看法。 ACEE 项目将加深对机构在联合学习/身份形成过程中的重要性的更细致的理解。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。