Schools often have limited resources to devote to science education, which can impact student interest in and preparedness for careers in STEM. Seattle Children’s Research Institute created the Science Adventure Lab, a mobile laboratory program, to support and enrich science education at low-resource schools and stimulate interest in science and pursuing a career in STEM. The mobile laboratory provides students with the unique opportunity to fully immerse themselves in authentic, hands-on science learning with scientists. This limits the burden on school resources and reduces disruptions to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William H RodenRebecca HowsmonRebecca A CarterMark RuffoAmanda L Jones
Many urban New Yorkers believe that the Hudson River is so polluted that nothing could possibly live there. In reality, the estuary is thriving, and The River Project (TRP), a marine science field station in lower Manhattan, exists to showcase its vast biodiversity through place-based education. In 2014, TRP began collaborating on a city-wide initiative with New York Harbor Foundation and eight other partner organizations to integrate restoration science into Title I middle school curricula through the Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (CCERS). Teachers in the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elisa CarefMelissa RexAnnie LederbergGaylen Moore
In 2017, Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) conducted a summative evaluation of Design Squad Global (DSG). DSG is produced and managed by WGBH Educational Foundation. WGBH partnered with FHI 360, a nonprofit human development organizations working in 70 countries, to implement DSG around the globe.
In the DSG program, children in afterschool and school clubs explored engineering through hands-on activities, such as designing and building an emergency shelter or a structure that could withstand an earthquake. Through DSG, children also had the chance to work alongside a partner club from another
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), in collaboration with New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy and the University of Southern Maine Center for Evaluation and Policy, will develop and evaluate a new teacher education program model to prepare science teachers through a partnership between a world class science museum and high need schools in metropolitan New York City (NYC). This innovative pilot residency model was approved by the New York State (NYS) Board of Regents as part of the state’s Race To The Top award. The program will prepare a total of 50 candidates in two cohorts (2012 and 2013) to earn a Board of Regents-awarded Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree with a specialization in Earth Science for grades 7-12. The program focuses on Earth Science both because it is one of the greatest areas of science teacher shortages in urban areas and because AMNH has the ability to leverage the required scientific and educational resources in Earth Science and allied disciplines, including paleontology and astrophysics.
The proposed 15-month, 36-credit residency program is followed by two additional years of mentoring for new teachers. In addition to a full academic year of residency in high-needs public schools, teacher candidates will undertake two AMNH-based clinical summer residencies; a Museum Teaching Residency prior to entering their host schools, and a Museum Science Residency prior to entering the teaching profession. All courses will be taught by teams of doctoral-level educators and scientists.
The project’s research and evaluation components will examine the factors and outcomes of a program offered through a science museum working with the formal teacher preparation system in high need schools. Formative and summative evaluations will document all aspects of the program. In light of the NYS requirement that the pilot program be implemented in high-need, low-performing schools, this project has the potential to engage, motivate and improve the Earth Science achievement and interest in STEM careers of thousands of students from traditionally underrepresented populations including English language learners, special education students, and racial minority groups. In addition, this project will gather meaningful data on the role science museums can play in preparing well-qualified Earth Science teachers. The research component will examine the impact of this new teacher preparation model on student achievement in metropolitan NYC schools. More specifically, this project asks, "How do Earth Science students taught by first year AMNH MAT Earth Science teachers perform academically in comparison with students taught by first year Earth Science teachers not prepared in the AMNH program?.”
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maritza MacdonaldMeryle WeinsteinRosamond KinzlerMordecai-Mark Mac LowEdmond MathezDavid Silvernail
Many urban universities offer precollege STEM programs aimed at broadening participation in STEM. These programs are designed to increase students' scientific content knowledge and skills, promote STEM engagement, increase self-efficacy, and prepare underserved and underrepresented minority high school students for success in undergraduate programs. However, even after demonstrating significant knowledge gains and success in these programs, students are often unable to authenticate their knowledge gains to receive favorable consideration on college applications. In fact, there is currently no systematic credentialing mechanism to assess and validate the scientific rigor of and competency gains within STEM precollege programs for college admissions purposes. This NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot seeks to address this gap by developing and testing credentialing and badging processes for four STEM precollege programs. Working with College Admissions Officers and project partners, the University of Pittsburgh endeavors to employ a collaborative impact approach to build and document the collaborative infrastructure needed to support STEM precollege program authentication processes. This will seed the development of a networked improvement community that supports all aspects of the work from participant support to the collaborative impact to the greater network of urban education university ecosystems involved in the pilot.
Over a two-year period, this pilot will examine a mechanism to strengthen the STEM pathway for disadvantaged and underrepresented minority students to enter postsecondary STEM programs and eventually STEM careers. Building on two social innovation theories, the technical approach will focus on four specific aims: (1) create a community engagement framework to recruit underserved and underrepresented high school students to STEM precollege programs, (2) develop a STEM Success Matrix that identifies student competencies acquired in precollege programs that prepare students for collegiate success in STEM, (3) credential precollege programs using the STEM Success Matrix, and (4) develop a student badging system for precollege program participants using the STEM Success Matrix. Four University of Pittsburgh STEM precollege programs will serve as the context for development and testing with support from a range of partners representing the broader Pittsburgh STEM ecosystem. Approximately 300 high school students are expected to participate in the pilot, across the four precollege programs. Data will be collected via participant surveys and interviews. Formative and summative evaluations will be conducted by an experienced, external evaluator. Shareable metrics, tools, and processes will be developed and disseminated using various platforms and mechanisms. If successful, this pilot could be transformative - changing admissions considerations by credentialing STEM precollege programs and increasing student interest and motivation in STEM through student badging. It would also transform the STEM ecosystem of underserved and underrepresented minority students by creating an important STEM pathway from precollege to undergraduate admissions and ultimately, STEM Careers. This pilot could serve as a baseline for a more expansive alliance with other urban education ecosystems or assisting others interested in establishing their own collaborative infrastructure and networked improvement community model to achieve similar results.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alison Slinskey LeggJennifer IritiDavid BooneAlaine AllenLori Delale-O'Connor
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Aligning for Impact: Computer Science Pathways Across Contexts [CS-PAC] is an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot. It broadens participation of students who are underrepresented in computer science by using the convening and policy-making power of the Georgia State Department of Education to coalesce school district leaders to implement K-12 computer science education. The project provides a national model for how to work toward systemic change. With the State Department of Education's coordination, several school districts will collaboratively seek improvements in their own student participation rates. The coordination of data reporting and analysis, resources, communications, and policy promote more equitable participation in computer science education. Research emerging from this project informs other states about how to collaboratively shape computer science education policy and policy implementation.
Using a Collective Impact approach to systemic change, the project creates sustainable institutional change at the community, state, and national levels. Qualitative and quantitative data provide descriptions about how to utilize alignment strategies within Collective Impact in three different contexts: rural, suburban, and urban. Outcomes utilize a regression discontinuity analysis to justify successful implementation as well as qualitative analysis of implementation efforts that were deemed most effective by all stakeholders. The project outputs directly affect over 88,000 students across five districts and indirectly affect over 1.7 million in Georgia alone. The culminating project goal is the development of a coherent framework for aligning K-12 computer science education pathways.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Caitlin DooleyBryan CoxShawn Utley
resourceprojectProfessional Development and Workshops
This is an "Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science" (INCLUDES) Design and Development Launch Pilot that will implement a plan to assess the feasibility of a strategy designed to ensure high levels of improvement in K-12 grade students' mathematics achievement. The plan will focus on an often-neglected group of students--those who have been performing at the lowest quartile on state tests of mathematics, including African American, Hispanic, Native American, students with disabilities, and those segregated in urban and rural communities across the country. The project will draw on lessons learned from the nation's Civil Rights Movement and a community-organizing strategy learned during the struggle to achieve voting rights for African Americans. The Algebra Project (AP) is a national, nonprofit organization that uses mathematics as an organizing tool to ensure quality public school education for every child in America; it believes that every child has a right to a quality education to succeed in this technology-based society. AP's unique approach to school reform intentionally develops sustainable, student-centered models by building coalitions of stakeholders within the local communities, particularly the historically underserved populations. The AP works to change the deeply rooted social attitudes that encourage the disenfranchisement of a third of the nation's population. It delivers a multi-pronged approach to build demand for and support of quality public schools, including research and development, school development, and community development education reform efforts through K-12 initiatives.
The Algebra Project and the Young People's Project (YPP) will join efforts to bring together over 70 individuals and organizations, including 17 universities of which 8 are Historical Black Colleges and Universities, school districts, mathematics educators, and researchers to examine their experiences, and use collective learning to refine and hone strategies that they have piloted and tested to promote mathematics inclusion. The role of YPP in the proposed project will be to organize and facilitate the youth component, such that project activities reflect the language and culture of students, continuously leveraging and building upon their voice, creative input, and ongoing feedback. YPP will conduct workshops for students organized around math-based games that provide collective experiences in which student learning requires individual reflection, small group work, teamwork and discussion. The proposed work will comprise the design of effective learning opportunities; building and supporting a cadre of teachers who can effectively work with students learning under the proposed approach; using technologies to enhance teaching and learning; and utilizing evaluation and research to drive continuous improvement. Because bringing together an effective network with diverse expertise to collaborate towards national impact requires expert facilitation processes, the project will establish working groups around three major principles: (1) Organizing from the bottom up through students, their teachers, and others in local communities committed to their education, allied with individuals and organizations who have expertise and dedication for achieving the stated goals, can produce significant progress and the conditions for collective impact; (2) Effective learning materials and formal and informal learning opportunities in mathematics can be designed and implemented for students performing in the bottom academic quartile; and (3) Teachers and other educators can become more proficient and more confident in their capacity to produce students who are successful in learning the level of mathematics required for full participation in STEM. The working groups will also be tasked to consider two cross-cutting topics: (a) the communication structures and technologies needed to operate and expand the present network, and to create the "backbone" and other structures needed to operate and expand the network; and (b) the measurements and metrics for major needs, such as assessing students' mathematics literacy, socio-emotional development in specified areas; teachers' competencies; as well as the work of the network. The final product of this plan will be a "Theory of Collective Action and Strategic Plan". The plan will contain recommendations for collective actions needed in order for the current network to coordinate, add appropriate partners, develop the needed backbone structures, and become an NSF Alliance for national impact on the broadening participation challenge of improving the mathematics achievement. An external evaluator will conduct both formative and summative aspects of this process.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert MosesNell CobbGregory BudzbanMaisha MosesWilliam Crombie
In this case study, we highlight the work of the Bay Area STEM Ecosystem, which aims to increase equity and access to STEM learning opportunities in underserved communities. First, we lay out the problems they are trying to solve and give a high level overview of the Bay Area STEM Ecosystem’s approach to addressing them. Then, based on field observations and interviews, we highlight both the successes and some missed opportunities from the first collaborative program of this Ecosystem. Both the successes of The Bay Area STEM Ecosystem--as well as the partners’ willingness to share and examine
This is the final report from the external evaluator of the project that created MedLab, an interactive learning experiences for Chicago area middle and high school students. This external evaluator's final report summarizes the outcomes and impacts of the five-year (2012-2017) funding compared to project objectives. The aim of the project was to use in person and online curricula, including a humanoid patient simulator (iStan®), to build interest in and knowledge of health sciences and health careers, with a particular focus on local community health concerns. An additional goal was to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christina Shane-SimpsonJohn FraserSusan HannahKin KongPatricia WardRabiah Mayas
This longitudinal research study will contribute to a broader understanding of the pathways of STEM-interested high school students from underrepresented groups who plan to pursue or complete science studies in their post-high school endeavors. The project will investigate the ways that formative authentic science experiences may support youth's persistence in STEM. The study focuses on approximately 900 urban youth who are high interest, high potential STEM students who participate in, or are alumni of, the Science Research Mentoring Program. This program provides intensive mentoring for high school youth from groups underrepresented in STEM careers. It takes place at 17 sites around New York City, including American Museum of Natural History, which is the original program site. Identifying key supports and obstacles in the pathways of high-interest, under-represented youth towards STEM careers can help practitioners design more inclusive and equitable STEM learning experiences and supports. In this way, the project will capitalize on student interest so that students with potential continue to persist.
In order to understand better the factors that influence these students, this research combines longitudinal social network and survey data with interviews and case studies, as well as an analysis of matched student data from New York City Public Schools' records. The research questions in the study are a) how do youths' social networks develop through their participation in scientists' communities of practice? b) what is the relationship between features of the communities of practice and youths' social networks, measures of academic achievement, and youths' pursuit of a STEM major? and c) what are the variations in youth pathways in relationship to learner characteristics, composition of social networks, and features of the community of practice? The research design allows for a rich, layered perspective of student pathways. In particular, by employing social network analysis, this study will reveal relational features of persistence that may be particularly critical for underrepresented youth, for whom STEM role models and cultural brokers provide an otherwise unavailable sense of belonging and identity in STEM. The study will also access a New York City Public Schools data set comprised of student-level records containing biographical and demographic variables, secondary and postsecondary course enrollment and grades, exam scores, persistence/graduation indicators, linked responses to post-secondary surveys, and post-education employment records and wages. These data enable examination of inter-relationships between in-school achievement and out-of-school STEM experiences through comparison of program participants to similar non-participant peers. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.
This project, “Global, Local, Coastal”, will be led by Groundwork Hudson Valley and Sarah Lawrence College, to integrate and expand the work of three award-winning environmental education centers in Yonkers, NY – The Science Barge, Ecohouse and the Center for the Urban River (CURB). Its primary objective is to prepare low-income students for the impact of a changing climate so that they can participate both personally and professionally in a world in which these issues are increasingly prevalent. It reaches an audience that is not well served by traditional programs and is most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. Over the course of two years, the project will serve 600-700 middle and high school youth, primarily from the Yonkers public school system, through a new, integrated curriculum that teaches about these issues from multiple perspectives. Beyond its impact on students, the project will have a broader impact on people in our region. Together, the Barge, Ecohouse and CURB are visited by close to 10,000 people each year and new exhibits will reinforce key themes related to resiliency and adaptation. Other partners include NOAA’s Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Lamont Doherty, and the Center for Climate Change in the Urban Northeast. The state’s NY Rising Program and Yonkers Public Schools are key partners too. The project will be carried out in a community that has been severely affected by extreme weather in the last decade, including three hurricanes. Outcomes will help create “an informed society to anticipate and respond to climate and its impacts.” It also addresses NOAA’s goal of a “Weather-Ready Nation,” and “Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies.
The importance of increasing and widening participation in post-compulsory science and informal science learning (ISL) spaces is widely recognized—particularly for working-class and minority ethnic communities. While there is a growing understanding of the intersection of femininity with class, ethnicity, and science learning across formal and informal settings, there has been little work on how masculinity may shape urban boys’ science (non)participation and (dis)engagement. This article analyzes performances of masculinity enacted by 36 urban, working-class boys (from diverse ethnic