Project Profile

This project will contribute to the Earth science education community's understanding of how engaging students with computational activities and prioritizing their knowledge, personal experiences, and community values can broaden the participation of diverse students in geoscience. The YouthQuake project will engage Hispanic and African American middle school students in Stockton, California, in authentic investigations of their community's earthquake hazards, risks, and preparedness using practices of professional geoscientists. Through a partnership among teachers, geoscientists, educational researchers, technology and curriculum developers, and a workforce and diversity specialist, the project will co-design a four-week computational geoscience curriculum. Students will (1) explore their community's likelihood of experiencing a damaging earthquake, (2) determine their community's current policies and resources for earthquake preparedness, (3) investigate what causes earthquakes based on real-world data and computational models of land motion along faults, and (4) create earthquake hazard maps using an intuitive block-based programming environment that imports seismic data and generates map-based visualization outputs. The project plans to work with 10 middle school teachers and approximately 1,120 middle school students. The findings will generate evidence-based teaching strategies that promote students' understanding of earthquake hazards, risk, and mitigation as well as their computational geoscience identities and career awareness. The materials generated through design and development will be made available for free to all future learners, teachers, and researchers beyond the participants outlined in the project.

The goal of the YouthQuake project is to engage Hispanic and African American middle school students in Stockton, California, in authentic computational geoscience investigations of earthquake hazards in order to increase their interest in, and identity with, computational geoscience careers. A multidisciplinary partnership among YouthQuake teachers, geoscientists, educational researchers, technology and curriculum developers, and a workforce and diversity specialist will co-design a four-week computational geoscience curriculum. The curriculum activities will be situated in the local community context so students can: 1) explore their neighborhood's likelihood of experiencing a damaging earthquake and related preparedness, 2) investigate GPS data and use computational models of land motion along the faults around their community, and 3) create computational visualizations of earthquake hazard maps. Two cycles of design?based research will be conducted to develop the YouthQuake curriculum and assessment materials. A mixed-methods research design will be applied to analyze pre-post tests, surveys, embedded assessments, and whole class and student videos. Project research will generate knowledge about curriculum design and teaching strategies that promote students' engagement with computation-mediated science practices as well as computational geoscience identity and career interests. Several equity strategies will be investigated, including: (1) using contextual scaffolds to help students bridge real-world problems with their diverse forms of science knowledge and experiences, (2) engaging students in authentic investigations and practices of career professionals, (3) building on students' cultural assets and strengths derived by belonging to different communities, and (4) empowering students to become epistemic agents in shaping their knowledge and practice. The outcomes of the project will include evidence-based knowledge and an exemplary student technology experience that addresses these equity strategies.

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 funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of STEM by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools.

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.