Project Profile

This two-year Exploring Theory and Design Principles (ETD) project will engage culturally and linguistically diverse resettled refugee and immigrant middle school students in co-designing culturally relevant and place-based STEM learning experiences through immersive digital storytelling. During the digital storytelling co-design process, participants will expand their STEM disciplinary knowledge and skills in agriculture, environmental science, and entry-level computer coding. The goal of this project is to increase participants’ STEM learning, identity, and self-efficacy and to broaden their interests in STEM career pathways. The project is distinguished by four key features: (1) an interdisciplinary approach in which STEM learning is integrated into an immersive digital storytelling process; (2) a focus on culturally relevant and place-based STEM learning experiences integrating two contexts of participants’ lived experiences: food stories connected to diverse countries of origin and environmental science stories integral to the agricultural community in their new homes, (3) a participatory design whereby participating students co-design digital stories with researchers, graduate mentors, undergraduate near-peer mentors, and community members; and (4) a community partnership where participants’ learning experiences are enhanced through local farm industry mentorship and museum exhibit residency opportunities. Forty resettled refugee and immigrant middle schoolers in Syracuse, New York, will participate in the program in two cohorts, with one cohort for each year of the project period.

Within the general lens of the sociocultural framework, this project incorporates asset-based approaches with community-based participatory research to support refugee and immigrant youth’s STEM aspirations. The research team will investigate a set of questions focusing on whether and how the proposed program intervention supports culturally and linguistically diverse resettled refugee and immigrant youth. These questions include: (1) Is the proposed program intervention effective in supporting STEM learning for participating learners? And in what ways? (2) Is the proposed program intervention effective in supporting STEM identity and self-efficacy for participating learners? And in what ways? (3) Is the proposed program intervention effective in supporting STEM career interests for participating learners? And in what ways? (4) Are there challenges that participating youth encounter during the project? If so, what strategies can be used to overcome them for future iteration and scale-up of the program? The project will use a primarily qualitative ethnographic method to explore these research questions, including participatory visual techniques, observations, interviews, video recordings, reflection notes, and project artifacts. In addition, pre- and post-surveys will be conducted to measure participants’ change in STEM self-efficacy and career interests. Deliverables will include (1) participants’ immersive digital stories, which can serve as learning tools in various formal and informal settings; (2) two sets of modules/curriculum, one for facilitators and one for participants, supporting the co-design process, which will be made available to educators through multiple forms of dissemination; and (3) a practical guide for using community-based research to involve refugee and immigrant youth in STEM based on the project findings. Research findings will be disseminated through a project website as well as conference presentations and journal publications. All program materials will be made free and publicly accessible so that other educators, designers, and researchers can replicate or modify to support underrepresented learners in STEM. 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 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.