This Innovations in Development project explores radical healing as an approach to create after-school STEM programming that welcomes, values and supports African American youth to form positive STEM identities. Radical healing is a strength-based, asset centered approach that incorporates culture, identity, civic action, and collective healing to build the capacity of young people to apply academic knowledge for the good of their communities. The project uses a newly developed graphic novel as a model of what it looks like to engage in the radical healing process and use STEM technology for social justice. This graphic novel, When Spiderwebs Unite, tells the true story of an African American community who used STEM technology to advocate for clean air and water for their community. Youth are supported to consider their own experiences and emotions in their sociopolitical contexts, realize they are not alone, and collaborate with their community members to take critical action towards social change through STEM. The STEM Club activities include mentoring by African American undergraduate students, story writing, conducting justice-oriented environmental sciences investigations, and applying the results of their investigations to propose and implement community action plans. These activities aim to build youth’s capacity to resist oppression and leverage the power of STEM technology for their benefit and that of their communities.
Clemson University, in partnership with the Urban League of the Upstate, engages 100 predominantly African American middle school students and 32 African American undergraduate students in healing justice work, across two youth-serving, community-based organizations at three sites. These young people assume a leadership role in developing this project’s graphic novel and curriculum for a yearlong, after-school STEM Club, both constructed upon the essential components of radical healing. This project uses a qual→quant parallel research design to investigate how the development and use of a graphic novel could be used as a healing justice tool, and how various components of radical healing (critical consciousness, cultural authenticity, self knowledge, radical hope, emotional and social support, and strength and resilience) affect African American youths’ STEM identity development. Researchers scrutinize interviews, field observations, and project documents to address their investigation and utilize statistical analyses of survey data to inform and triangulate the qualitative data findings. Thus, qualitative and quantitative data are used to challenge dominant narratives regarding African American youth’s STEM achievements and trajectories. The project advances discovery and understanding of radical healing as an approach to explicitly value African Americans’ cultures, identities, histories, and voices within informal STEM programming.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Renee LyonsRhondda ThomasCorliss Outley
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan's Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways will organize a four-day educational symposium to build a better understanding of Native American culture and history. The project will begin with a forum to foster dialogue on the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Saginaw. The forum will discuss the treaty's impact on sovereignty and relationships between natives and non-natives and the loss of continuity of language, culture, and the practice of traditional art forms. The forum will include representatives from the 25 tribes whose children attended the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School. The representatives will share cultural stories and traditional methods through birch bark, black ash, elm and sweet grass basket making. The symposium will conclude on Michigan Indian Day with science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) activities for area students.
The Polar Literacy (PL) project explores the development and implementation of Out of School Time (OST) learning opportunities focused on polar literacy concepts and authentic data with middle school aged youth. This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
Dinosaurs of Antarctica is a giant screen film and outreach project that documents the work of NSF-funded researchers on expeditions to Shackleton Glacier during the 2017-2018 field season. This immersive film and companion television special will bring the past to life and engage the public, and particularly students in middle grades (6-9), with polar science through appealing, entertaining media experiences and informal learning programs. The film serves as a companion for the synonymous Antarctic Dinosaurs museum exhibition
For over 100 years, the National Park Service (NPS) has brought inspiration and education to the millions of people who visit. Within the NPS, the Junior Ranger program has emerged as a fun and informal way for children aged 5-13 to learn about a park site. Part of the Junior Ranger program is the completion of an activity booklet that one must complete to earn a badge, patch, or certificate. Often, NPS resources for this program can vary, and the creation of Junior Ranger booklets can become low-priority, side projects for interpretation or education rangers. Furthermore, these rangers differ
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Logan WegmeyerLuke SchutzmanMammoth Cave National Park
The University of South Carolina will develop and research an educational program in the Southeastern United States designed to recognize and foreground the scientific contributions of the descendants of West Africans and West Indians. Though these contributions have been vital to many scientific enterprises, including land stewardship and aquaponics, they have remained largely underappreciated in educational programs. To address this issue, this project will develop an informal science education program for youth from Gullah/Geechee communities whose ancestors were formerly enslaved West African and West Indian peoples. Across centuries, Gullah/Geechee people have developed historical and contemporary scientific, engineering, and technological practices that enabled the mastery of fishing and the cultivation of numerous crops across barrier islands and coastal cities from North Carolina to Florida. Guided by Gullah/Geechee scholars and community members, pre-service and in-service teachers will co-design culturally sustaining summer programs, which provide Gullah/Geechee youth with opportunities to engage in culturally-embedded scientific and engineering practices as they learn about numerous STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career pathways related to these practices. The University of South Carolina will host these summer programs in partnership with the historic Penn Center, an African American historical and cultural institution, and in partnership with the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, a research organization dedicated to improving the management of marine and coastal resources. Researchers will study how the in-service and pre-service teachers enact pedagogies that sustain Gullah/Geechee cultural practices. They will also study how the Gullah/Geechee youth share their understandings of culturally-embedded scientific content through creating iMovies and through giving community presentations hosted by the Penn Center, Baruch Institute, and other community partners. This project will advance knowledge on broadening participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career pathways in informal settings through culturally sustaining pedagogies. This project will also advance partnerships through illuminating how different institutions and stakeholders?such as community leaders, cultural centers, university educator programs, and scientific research organizations can work together to support culturally-embedded learning across informal settings.
The University of South Carolina will conduct a mixed-method study grounded in principles of design-based research and community-based participatory research. Pre-service and in-service teachers from underrepresented groups will participate in an immersive two-year professional development experience during which they co-design and teach culturally sustaining summer programs with Gullah/Geechee scholars and leaders. In these programs, fifth- and sixth-grade Gullah/Geechee youth will engage in project-based learning by applying historical and contemporary scientific practices grounded in Gullah/Geechee cultures. Guided by cultural mentors, youth will engage in STEM practices similar to those of STEM professionals in the community. Researchers will study how the educators understand and apply culturally sustaining pedagogies by using constant comparative analytic methods to analyze transcripts from observations and interviews, as well as the educators' work materials (e.g., lesson plans). They will also study how the youth convey their understandings of culturally-embedded scientific content and practices by using constant comparative and multimodal analysis to analyze transcripts from interviews and observations, as well as youth-generated artifacts such as the iMovie. Additionally, pre- and post-tests will enable the research team to determine changes to the youths' understandings of scientific content and perceptions regarding participation in STEM enterprises and careers. Deliverables, such as youth-generated products, will be shared with local media and with relevant cultural centers, while empirical results will be widely disseminated through local and national conferences. 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 project is also co-funded by the Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the AISL program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
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.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The project aims to understand ways to empower Latinx families (adult caregivers) to feel confident in their ability to support their middle school-aged girls in science and engineering activities. The project involves seven weeks of family programming around rockets or urban farming, as well as separate conversation groups for adult family members and girls. The project is relevant for several reasons: females and Latinx individuals are both underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) coursework and careers; girls tend to lose interest in STEM by middle school age; and adult family members may have an impact on their children's attitudes and interests. The project partners with school districts and nonprofit organizations in Arizona and California.
This multidisciplinary project's priority is broadening participation, with a focus on increasing Latina girls' science and engineering interests through Family Project-Based Learning Activities, Conversation Groups, and a cultivated Community of Learners. It is based on the frameworks of Social Cognitive Career Theory and Community Cultural Wealth. The project aims to empower families (adult caregivers) to feel confident in their ability to support their daughters in science and engineering activities, which is often low especially among Latinx parents. The project will develop and evaluate two out-of-school enrichment methods for aiding families in encouraging and supporting their daughters in science: Family Problem-Based Learning Activities, which focus on rockets and urban farming, and Conversation Groups, which provide information and discussion for separate groups of parents and girls. A series of pilot studies will be conducted with 80 families to iteratively evaluate and improve the materials and procedure prior to the main study with 180 families, featuring a factorial design with a control group.
The materials developed and research findings may inform similar projects, especially those for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and projects seeking to enhance the role of families in learning. The hypothesis guiding the project is that the greatest gains will be produced with the synergistic combination of enrichment methods. Another component that can potentially have broad impact is working to create environments where Community Cultural Wealth is recognized and enhanced through interactions of different families, creating Communities of Learners. This can inform projects that recognize the importance of community and/or that seek to use culture as an asset. The proposed study will engage three geographically distributed universities and several community partners. It will also provide university students and community leaders opportunities for work on instructional design, implementation, and research. The team will disseminate their findings and methods through multiple avenues to reach researchers, parents, leaders, curators, and educators in informal and K-12 settings.
This Research in Service to Practice 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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katherine Short-MeyersonPeter RilleroPeter MeyersonMargarita Jimenez-SilvaChristopher Edwards
Our goal in creating this guide is to provide practitioners, organizations, researchers, and others with a “one-stop shop” for measuring nature connections. The guide is for those interested in assessing and enhancing the connections their audiences have to nature; we use the term “audience” to refer broadly to your participants or to any group you are trying to assess. The guide can help you choose an appropriate tool (for example, a survey or activity) for your needs, whether you work with young children, teenagers, or adults (see the Decision Tree on p. 14). The guide also includes 11 tools
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gabby SalazarKristen KunkleMartha Monroe
Science Hunters is an outreach project which employs the computer game Minecraft to engage children with scientific learning and research through school visits, events, and extracurricular clubs. We principally target children who may experience barriers to accessing Higher Education, including low socioeconomic status, being the first in their family to attend university, and disability (including Special Educational Needs). The Minecraft platform encourages teamwork and makes science learning accessible and entertaining for children, irrespective of background. We employ a flexible approach
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Laura HobbsCarly StevensJackie HartleyCalum Hartley