Conference: Research Infrastructure for Informal STEM Education

会议：非正式 STEM 教育的研究基础设施

• 批准号: 2335009
• 负责人: Christine Reich
• 金额: $ 7.7万
• 依托单位: Knology Ltd.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2335009&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Conference; Research; Infrastructure; Informal; STEM

The Research Infrastructure for Informal STEM Education conference will bring together education researchers, product developers, funders, and community organizations to develop a conceptual plan for new infrastructure that supports research on equitable informal STEM learning. Equitable participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is essential if all our nation’s communities are to thrive. Yet, many barriers still exist that prevent equitable participation from becoming a reality. Informal science learning—such as educational gaming, out-of-school time programming, science museums, and media—can offer a pathway for reducing inequities in STEM if they are designed with community needs and interests in mind. One factor that prevents the design of equitable informal STEM learning experiences is the echo chamber that occurs through the study of these experiences. Research often focuses on the existing or the most invested audiences in these settings, and the voices of underrepresented communities can be absent. Increasing equity in STEM participation means increasing equity among those contributing to and participating in STEM learning research. To address this, many scholars have called for approaches to informal STEM learning research that emphasize collaborations between researchers, practitioners, and community partners. The conference will address historic inequities in informal science learning by bringing together 25 key stakeholders to discuss the research infrastructure needed to support the study of equity-focused informal STEM learning. In addition, over 100 informal STEM learning researchers and product developers, community-based organizations, public institutions, and philanthropic foundations will be invited to contribute to the discussion through pre and post conference activities. The two-day virtual conference will be designed to answer one overarching question: What building blocks are needed in research infrastructure so that it advances the equity aims of informal science learning researchers, practitioners, and community-based organizations? To answer this question, the first day of the conference will feature activities designed to advance participants’ understanding of each other's STEM equity aims through engaged dialogue. Participants will also share existing resources for achieving these aims. On the second day, participants will identify the necessary elements of the proposed national infrastructure—for example, the identification of community-based sites for research, the establishment of shared instruments appropriate to community settings, and the creation of a database that provides direct connections between community organizations and researchers. Following the conference, the project team will synthesize the findings into a digital multimedia report that will be available through Knology’s website and at informalscience.org.This project is supported through a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Walton Family Foundation. Funding is also provided by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program at NSF.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.

非正式STEM教育会议的研究基础设施将召集教育研究人员，产品开发人员，资金和社区组织，为新的基础设施制定概念计划，以支持公平的非正式STEM学习研究。如果我们所有国家的社区都要繁荣发展，那么公平地参与科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）至关重要。然而，仍然存在许多障碍，以防止公平参与成为现实。非正式的科学学习，例如教育游戏，校外时间编程，科学博物馆和媒体 - 如果考虑到社区需求和兴趣，则可以提供减少STEM不平等的途径。阻止公平非正式STEM学习经历设计的一个因素是通过研究这些经验而发生的回声室。研究通常关注这些环境中现有或最投资的受众，并且可能不存在代表性不足的社区的声音。增加茎参与的平等意味着增加对STEM学习研究和参与STEM学习研究的人之间的平等。为了解决这个问题，许多学者呼吁采用非正式STEM学习研究的方法，该研究强调研究人员，从业者和社区伙伴之间的合作。会议将通过汇集25位关键利益相关者讨论支持以股权为中心的非正式STEM学习所需的研究基础设施来解决非正式科学学习中的历史性不平等。此外，将邀请100多种非正式的STEM学习研究人员和产品开发人员，基于社区的组织，公共机构和慈善基金会通过会议前和会议后的活动为讨论做出贡献。为期两天的虚拟会议将旨在回答一个总体问题：研究基础架构中需要哪些构建基础，以便在非正式科学学习研究人员，从业人员和社区组织的权益目标中提高股权？为了回答这个问题，会议的第一天将采用旨在通过参与对话来促进参与者对彼此STEM股权的理解的活动。参与者还将共享实现这些目标的现有资源。在第二天，参与者将确定拟议的国家基础设施的必要要素，例如，确定基于社区的研究站点，建立适合社区环境的共享工具以及创建数据库的数据库，该数据库提供了社区组织和研究人员之间的直接联系。会议之后，项目团队将通过Knology的网站和InformalsCience.org.org将调查结果综合为数字多媒体报告。 NSF的前进非正式STEM学习计划（AISL）也提供了资金。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响标准，认为通过评估被认为是宝贵的支持。