Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Critical Data Stories: Co-Designing Remixing Tools with Teachers to Support Critical Data Literacy with Middle School Youth

Melody Hachey — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:06:52 +0000

Critical Data Stories: Co-Designing Remixing Tools with Teachers to Support Critical Data Literacy with Middle School Youth

Melody Hachey Mon, 02/05/2024 - 15:06

Critical Data Stories: Co-Designing Remixing Tools with Teachers to Support Critical Data Literacy with Middle School Youth

Description

Youth are avid creators and consumers of data-related claims through their participation on social media sites, in which they view, produce, and share content. They remix content, building off one another?s videos, gifs, and memes to represent and discuss topics they care about. However, participation on these same platforms can result in echo chambers, misinformation, and proliferation of perspectives that are detached from real-world experience. Thus, it is essential to support youth in developing the ability to critique data-related claims through engaging in investigations that consider context holistically, and with empathy for the people involved. This project explores the development of curricula and tools with middle school Math and English teachers that will leverage youth?s practices with digital media remixing to develop argumentation skills and the critical data literacies necessary to participate in today?s workforce and as informed citizens. Students will explore sociopolitical issues as they create data stories by synthesizing information across data sources and media. The project will develop curricular resources and tools to support students? abilities to investigate, critique, communicate and build knowledge with and around data. The project will engage 10 cross-domain teachers in 4 schools across the U.S. through summer workshops and year-round design collaborations; and up to 30 teachers and 1300 students across the United States through classroom implementations.

The project will develop tools and learning activities, including scaffolding and interaction design, to support integration of youth?s culturally relevant media practices, criticality in data investigations, and communication through the remixing of preexisting online material. The project will engage middle school math and English teachers in the co-design and implementation of the technology and curricular units as their learners use data and media to investigate and respond to their surrounding sociopolitical systems. A design-based research approach will inform multiple iterations of the technology and curriculum. Researchers will use mixed methods to analyze documentation, participant interviews, classroom observations, and implementation artifacts, to answer three research questions: (1) What remixing affordances can support students? critical data-reasoning practices?, (2) How can we support the implementation of critical data storytelling tools in diverse classroom contexts?, and (3) How do the remixing affordances of the critical data storytelling tools support students in developing and applying critical data-literacy practices? This project will contribute to an understanding of how technology can connect interdisciplinary learning goals across argumentation and communication to support critical data-reasoning practices.

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.

WEBSITES

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Megan Silander

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

2302659

Project Duration

2023 - 2026

Organization(s)

Education Development Center, Waltham, MA

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Engaging Underrepresented Populations in Environmental Action through Mentoring, Geospatial Technology and Digital Media Storytelling

Clara McCurdy-Kirlis — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 22:08:48 +0000

Engaging Underrepresented Populations in Environmental Action through Mentoring, Geospatial Technology and Digital Media Storytelling

Clara McCurdy-Kirlis Mon, 10/17/2022 - 18:08

Engaging Underrepresented Populations in Environmental Action through Mentoring, Geospatial Technology and Digital Media Storytelling

Description

This project seeks to address several challenges simultaneously: there is a need to improve the diversity of learners and workers in environmentally-focused STEAM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) careers and educational programs, a need to broaden participation in community environmental action, and a need to train future environmentally-focused STEAM workers in effective science communication. This project builds on an existing program that engages teens in intergenerational community conservation projects via geospatial technology so that it can better engage underrepresented youth. The innovation of the project is the inclusion of near-peer mentoring of high school students by undergraduate students, along with other culturally sustaining revisions to the existing program like the inclusion of other digital media forms to better support narrative storytelling, and the integration of a career guidance panel led by professionals engaged in relevant environmental, geospatial, and digital media careers. To prepare the undergraduates as near-peer mentors, they will be engaged in an Environmental Action through Storytelling and Mentoring course. The program will engage school pods (each with about 5 teens and 1 teacher) in both short-term workshops and long-term environmental action projects, guided by the near-peer mentors, university faculty, and community conservation partners. The digital storytelling products of these projects will be shared with the general public via radio, television, and digital platforms.

The research questions are framed around the concept of “identity authoring,” which entails three dimensions of engagement: developing competence with a domain’s content, engaging in performances of domain-specific practices, and being recognized (by oneself and by others) for one’s competence and performance. The project will (RQ1) investigate how the learners’ career interests and identity authoring are influenced by the digital media-supported science communication, the near-peer mentoring, and engagement in community environmental action. The project will also (RQ2) characterize how identity authoring takes place within the school pods. The project will engage up to 270 underrepresented teens, 60 undergraduates, and 54 educators, all of whom will complete pre-, post- and delayed-surveys to measure participants’ identity authoring. To address the second research question, purposive sampling will be used to select 4-10 participants for a longitudinal case study and an additional 4-10 participants for focus groups. The contribution to the field lies in the project’s exploration of how different program elements may encourage identity authoring among underrepresented youth. The broader impacts of the project include exposing learners to the constellation of STEAM careers associated with exploring and communicating environmental issues, as well as the impacts the youth projects may have on local community environmental issues. To facilitate adoption of the program model by others, the approach will be shared via a variety of dissemination strategies with community members, peers, and environmentally-focused STEAM professionals. 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.

WEBSITES

NSF Website(s)

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2148606&HistoricalAwards=false

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Laura Cisneros

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

2148606

Project Duration

2022 - 2026

Organization(s)

University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Project Work State

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Engaging Blind, Visually Impaired, and Sighted Students in STEM with Storytelling through Podcasts

Clara McCurdy-Kirlis — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 18:00:26 +0000

Engaging Blind, Visually Impaired, and Sighted Students in STEM with Storytelling through Podcasts

Clara McCurdy-Kirlis Wed, 07/27/2022 - 14:00

Engaging Blind, Visually Impaired, and Sighted Students in STEM with Storytelling through Podcasts

Description

This project will broaden participation in STEM for blind and visually impaired (BVI) and sighted upper elementary students through engagement with podcast technology. BVI individuals are significantly underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Research has shown that BVI students face many obstacles in pursuing education pathways to STEM fields, beginning in early education. These obstacles include negative attitudes of both students and teachers regarding the ability for BVI persons to engage in STEM careers, and the lack of BVI-accessible STEM resources in classrooms. This project builds on the success of the children’s science podcast, Tumble, to engage BVI students in the use and development of podcasts to promote STEM learning and career awareness. In addition, this project explores how podcasts can be used to engage BVI students in the classroom, with broader implications for digital media use for all students. It lays the foundation for educators to integrate podcasts and podcast technology into the classroom, in a way that is accessible for BVI students. Tumble will produce a variety of podcasts featuring BVI and disabled scientists. Teachers will guide students in using these episodes as the basis for producing their own science podcasts - developing ideas, interviewing scientists, writing scripts, and editing audio. Twelve BVI and integrated classrooms will be involved in design-testing this curriculum. The final materials will be made freely available in a web portal, where students and teachers around the world can access it. Tumble’s BVI episodes will also be freely available and will reach its estimated 200,000 listeners worldwide. Additionally, the episodes will be adapted into Spanish, and released on Tumble’s Spanish-language podcast feed.

While many teachers have begun using podcasts in the classroom, there is little research around podcasts as a technology to disseminate information to K-12 students or how podcasts can be used as a teaching/learning tool in classrooms, especially to meet the needs of BVI students. This project is innovative in its approach to exploring outcomes of engaging upper elementary students (grades 3-5) with podcast technology for science learning, with a particular focus on supporting access for BVI students. Project goals address the following questions: 1) How can listening to and producing podcast technology increase awareness and interest in STEM careers for BVI and sighted students? 2) How does featuring BVI scientists and their work normalize participation of persons with disabilities in science and scientific research? 3) To what degree does this lead to empathy in all students, and to a sense of “possible selves” in science for BVI students? The project is an iterative process of data collection and design testing. It begins with a front-end research study in Years 1 and 2, to evaluate the literature, gain insight from podcast professionals, BVI scientists and advocates, engage a teacher design group, and conduct a national survey of teachers. Interviews and focus groups with podcast professionals, BVI scientists and teachers will be analyzed using inductive open coding. The national survey of teachers (n=500) will be analyzed for frequencies and central tendencies, and inferential statistics (e.g., comparisons between groups, comparisons by variables of interest) will be used for exploring explanatory variables. In year-2, design testing of the resources in upper elementary classrooms with BVI and sighted students will take place. It will rely on a 12-person design tester group and will involve questionnaires and focus groups, website analytic data, and at least six classroom observations. An efficacy study will be conducted in Years 2 & 3, combining a naturalistic study of the use of the resources by teachers with a quasi-experimental study to understand outcomes for BVI and sighted students. The naturalistic study will focus on 12 classrooms and combine a system of regular written feedback with interviews, web analytics and classroom observations. The quasi-experimental study in 12 classrooms with 240 students (in a nested design) involves teacher interviews, observations and a student retrospective post-survey. 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.

WEBSITES

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Sara Robberson Lentz

Kelly Riedinger

Project Staff

Victoria Sellers

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

2148711, 2148712

Project Duration

2022 - 2025

Organization(s)

Associated Universities, Inc. & Oregon State University, Washinton DC & Corvallis, District of Columbia

Project Work State

District of Columbia

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

A Networked Improvement Community Approach to School-wide Transformation, Teacher Agency, and Minoritized Students’ Climate Science Learning and Belonging

Kissy Canela — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 20:07:35 +0000

A Networked Improvement Community Approach to School-wide Transformation, Teacher Agency, and Minoritized Students’ Climate Science Learning and Belonging

Kissy Canela Fri, 07/30/2021 - 16:07

A Networked Improvement Community Approach to School-wide Transformation, Teacher Agency, and Minoritized Students’ Climate Science Learning and Belonging

Description

Incorporating urgent issues of social and environmental justice into environmental science teaching can harness youth’s real-world interests and improve their engagement, learning, sense of belonging, and career interests. This may be especially true for students who are directly experiencing the intertwined burdens of structural racism and environmental injustice. This project will adapt and extend successful Solar Suitcase curricula that explicitly link technology learning experiences to environmental science and social purpose. Examples include carbon-neutral energy technologies for electricity generation and transportation, off-grid solar power for disaster preparedness and response, and apps allowing for direct participation in science and supporting community outreach for local resilience projects. Situated in a largely Latinx community, this project explores the transformation of school-wide pedagogy for a high school and feeder middle school through Networked Improvement Community (NIC). The NIC, comprised of teachers, students, community-based organizations, and university faculty, will engage in co-development and improvement science research. If as successful as the focus groups that envisioned it, this project will offer an innovative approach to school-wide transformation. 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. Critical transformation learning (CTL) provides the theoretical framework for this project. CTL focuses on how people think, behave and relate to the natural environment, and to the local and global community. As such, CTL-driven educational practices directly address students’ lived socio-historical experience while also considering the climate crisis and its adverse impacts on students’ engagement in learning and connection to society. The team will develop and maintain an NIC that draws on partnerships between teachers, principals, students, community-based organizations, and university faculty. Research participation will include two schools and their principals, 28 teachers and 600 students. Using iterative improvement cycles the NIC will co-create, test, and improve an integrated climate-justice/climate-science curriculum to support student learning, including environmental content knowledge, STEM and ICT engagement and belonging, and related career interest. The curriculum development and implementation are a major activity of the NIC, and the curriculum will be shared widely. However, the primary outcome sought is school-wide transformation, including teacher and student identity as agents of change in the community based on STEM engagement and knowledge. The project will draw on surveys, interviews, audio recordings, classroom observations, field notes and hierarchical linear modeling to investigate whether and how co-creation through an NIC can lead to rapid educational innovation that optimizes whole school, teacher and student outcomes. 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.

WEBSITES

NSF Website(s)

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2049130&HistoricalAwards=false

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Karina Garbesi

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

2049130

Project Duration

2021 - 2025

Organization(s)

California State University, East Bay Foundation, Inc., Hayward, CA

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Design and Pitch Challenges in STEM: Merging Entrepreneurship and Mathematics Learning

Kissy Canela — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:00:27 +0000

Design and Pitch Challenges in STEM: Merging Entrepreneurship and Mathematics Learning

Kissy Canela Thu, 05/20/2021 - 15:00

Design and Pitch Challenges in STEM: Merging Entrepreneurship and Mathematics Learning

Description

To compete in a continually changing and increasingly technology-focused career landscape, students will need a deep, conceptual, and applied understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet, many students, especially students from underrepresented populations, perceive STEM to be disconnected from their interests and career aspirations. New curricular approaches are needed, especially in mathematics, that increase students’ career interest and engagement in STEM, while also supporting the learning of rich and targeted STEM content. In this project, researchers will develop and investigate nine design challenges built within a novel curricular framework for high school mathematics, the Design and Pitch Challenges in STEM. The Design and Pitch Challenges framework leverages entrepreneurial pitch competitions to support rich mathematics learning. Students work collaboratively to 1) build, test, and refine prototype STEM products; 2) design business plans to demonstrate product viability; and 3) pitch their products to a panel of judges. To support implementation, researchers will also build and investigate an online professional learning network for teachers. This project will explore whether and how entrepreneurship, through its flexible and interest-focused approach to career applications, can be an effective means for supporting the learning of targeted mathematics content and building career connections in the mathematics classroom. The project will also investigate how to best provide ongoing support to teachers through an online professional learning network while they implement the Design and Pitch Challenges. The research team will create nine math-focused design challenges, using an iterative process in the first year, piloting the challenges with about 50-100 local students. In years two and three, the team will test the challenges more broadly through partners at the non-profit JASON Learning, implementing capstone events in which approximately 2,400 students and 30 teachers in eight diverse school districts will engage in school-wide pitch competitions. Once completed, the materials will be widely distributed through the JASON network and freely available online. Across these two phases of the study, the research team will collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data to understand students' and teachers' experiences with the challenges and online professional learning network. This project aims to launch a new approach to the teaching and learning of high school mathematics through open-ended, entrepreneurial design challenges that allow students to explore the utility of mathematics while fostering students' career interest and engagement 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.

WEBSITES

NSF Website(s)

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2048332&HistoricalAwards=false

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Erin Krupa

Co-Principal Investigator(s)

Evaluator(s)

Project Staff

Primary Contact

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

2048332

Project Duration

2021 - 2024

Collaborative Research: Minoritized Youth Computer Science Learning, Belonging and Career Interest: Coding and Creating with Beats

Kissy Canela — Thu, 20 May 2021 18:29:47 +0000

Collaborative Research: Minoritized Youth Computer Science Learning, Belonging and Career Interest: Coding and Creating with Beats

Kissy Canela Thu, 05/20/2021 - 14:29

Collaborative Research: Minoritized Youth Computer Science Learning, Belonging and Career Interest: Coding and Creating with Beats

Description

Computer science knowledge and skills are essential in the digital world. Despite progress in the availability of computer science (CS) coursework in secondary school settings, a number of student groups remain substantially underrepresented in computing. This project aims to broaden youth participation in computing by focusing on innovative technology experiences centered around coding-based music. The project will engage Black, Latinx, and female youth during the critical middle school years when many students decide whether future opportunities in CS merit consideration. Through week-long summer programs held on college campuses, the project will develop and study a series of culturally relevant activities where participants learn how to play, manipulate, and create by coding authentic-sounding hip-hop beats using Sonic Pi music software. The project extends prior research into CS learning through coding beats by (1) enhancing the depth of technical analysis, (2) moving students from beat modification to beat creation, and (3) increasing the range of concepts that can naturally be included in a course. This collaborative effort across two universities, a local school district, and a community organization will engage musicians who utilize Sonic Pi in performances and host annual competitions and concerts featuring student work to help broaden youth perspectives of CS and computing-related careers. The project team will also prepare 40 teachers and community instructors to facilitate similar programs in their own settings, ensuring sustainability beyond the duration of the project. 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. The project employs design-based implementation research to iteratively refine the instructional approaches across 160 middle school students and two settings to best address the mismatch between CS culture and the culture and learning experiences of students underrepresented in computing. This project will design and investigate a summer program instructional approach that highlights how particular coding technology (e.g., Sonic Pi), scaffolding techniques, and learning activities work to support youth's computer science knowledge, confidence, sense of belonging, and career awareness. The project will build upon previously funded NSF STEM education research (e.g., EarSketch) by grounding in the Use-Modify-Create framework, which articulates a trajectory of youth learning in computing. Mixed methods will inform the research. Qualitative data from observations, focus groups and computational artifacts will explore the promise and effectiveness of the program in promoting expected youth outcomes. Quantitative data (e.g., validated pre- and post-surveys) will identify emergent patterns that will help strengthen the feasibility, sustainability, and social validity of the scaffolded approach. The knowledge and insights gained from this research will provide evidence to support future programs across other regions and develop strong CS learning experiences for students underrepresented in computing. 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.

WEBSITES

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Chrystalla Mouza

Project Staff

Yifan Zhang

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

2048793

Project Duration

2021 - 2025

Organization(s)

University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Project Work State

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Music & Sound Design Platforms

Middle School Teacher and Student's Experiences with Artificial Intelligence via Computational Cameras

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:22:21 +0000

Middle School Teacher and Student's Experiences with Artificial Intelligence via Computational Cameras

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/15/2020 - 10:22

Middle School Teacher and Student's Experiences with Artificial Intelligence via Computational Cameras

Description

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology applied to images and video is transforming society with broad applications to many social and economic sectors. To develop a citizenry that will participate in this technological revolution, it is essential to develop learning experiences for K-12 learners on the foundations of AI literacy in order to adequately prepare the workforce of the future. Supporting the teaching of AI concepts in the K-12 curriculum requires integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines. This project will develop and implement technology-infused summer workshops for middle school students in grades 6-8 in the areas of computer vision and machine learning through a program called ImageSTEM. The program uses computational cameras to integrate computer science, math and design thinking in teaching visual AI concepts while also drawing inspiration from media arts to enhance science learning experiences. Learning technology modules to be developed include color and lighting for physics-based vision to understand the interface between the physical world and image sensing; image classification pipelines that teach the basics of visual feature extraction, machine learning classification, and the collection and training of data; and use of machine learning for synthetically-generated visual media. Underrepresented students, including predominantly Hispanic/Latino students from Phoenix, Arizona and African-American students from a rural area in Georgia, will gain understanding and explore future careers in AI and STEM. The ImageSTEM program will disseminate knowledge and research findings on necessary skills and factors that underlie image-based visual AI technology for future STEM workforce development in industry, education, transportation, and healthcare. 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.

Researchers will investigate the design and deployment of computational camera technology into the science and math curriculum of grades 6-8. Project objectives include (1) conducting six workshops across the two collaborating institutions of Arizona State University and the University of Georgia, co-creating the curricular material for the workshops alongside 36 middle school teachers, (2) deploying and testing in both the on-site workshops as well as in teachers? classrooms during the academic school year, (3) gathering evidence to advance and deepen the field's understanding of students' development of computer science knowledge and practices in the areas of computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, and (4) assessing the impact of these experiences on the adoption and strengthening of STEM identities of teachers and students during the year after participation in the workshops. Research into the cognitive skills, scientific identity, and workforce development will be conducted for teachers and students participating in the ImageSTEM program using a mixed-methods approach. Affect control theory-based survey instruments, semi-structured interviews, teacher reflections, and researcher observations will be used to assess changes in STEM identities and STEM educational and career aspirations. The project outcomes include deployment of the workshop lessons into the middle school curriculum by teachers during the academic year, and contributions to teachers? knowledge of visual AI technology, and how students learn and engage in problem-solving activities through visual AI applications. The project team will disseminate learning modules based on findings in the workshops and research activities through online and multimedia formats to the broader community of schools and teachers for greater impact.

WEBSITES

NSF Website(s)

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1949384&HistoricalAwards=false

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Ramana Pidaparti

Suren Jayasuriya

Co-Principal Investigator(s)

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

1949493, 1949384

Project Duration

2020 - 2024

Network Science for All: Positioning Underserved Youth for Success in Pursuing STEM Pathways

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:19:12 +0000

Network Science for All: Positioning Underserved Youth for Success in Pursuing STEM Pathways

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/15/2020 - 10:19

Network Science for All: Positioning Underserved Youth for Success in Pursuing STEM Pathways

Description

Boston University, in partnership with Sociedad Latina, will investigate the role that a middle school network science curriculum plays as both an input and outcome of science learning. 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. The project team will focus on development of skills to investigate real-world problems that have meaningful consequences for humankind across social, technical, and scientific domains. This project will make use of publicly available data to allow students to be involved in project-based activities in and out of their classrooms that can have societal impact. The project team will leverage previously developed data-driven curriculum in the context of a network science lens, synthesize highly promising technical and STEM resources as well as in-school and out-of-school programs, and embed new education research advances on effective career development to evolve a construct that will best position underserved youth for future learning of science. The curriculum and career development resources will directly reach 600 principally Latinx students, 12 teachers, parents, and other key stakeholders. Project activities will be implemented in a range of in-school and after-school programs in Boston. Through a collective impact approach, the project will be replicable, scale to more schools throughout Massachusetts, inform related projects, and evolve to regional and national impact.

The project will create novel learning opportunities for middle school students to explore real-world project-based problems addressed through data analysis, data visualization and network modeling. This study will advance the field of interdisciplinary teaching and learning as well as strategies for supporting students and teachers through three interdependent strands: (1) Network Science for All workforce readiness curriculum modules, (2) applied evaluation metrics based on comparing students to peer groups through statewide data, and (3) sustainability and scalability embedded in the structure of the program. The project will be informed by several advisory boards aimed at leveraging the program in order to sustain and scale the effort. At Boston University, an internal advisory board will embed the project into the broad ecosystem of the university as part of a collective impact culture. A STEM advisory board will inform the science program. A formal independent external advisory board will guide the project?s efforts. Research will be conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, design-based research will be used to iteratively refine curriculum and programmatic interventions. In Phase 2, the research will examine the degree to which the program positions youth for success by examining the (1) varied acquisition of next generation STEM competencies for future workforce needs, (2) motivation and engagement of students and their support systems, and (3) impact on shifting STEM-related career goals and pathways to achieving these goals. All materials will be available in electronic forms on a Boston University project website, will be licensed under open-source code and open content licenses, and will be freely distributed to teachers, curriculum developers, and researchers. Research findings will be widely disseminated through publications and conference proceedings.

WEBSITES

NSF Website(s)

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1949526&HistoricalAwards=false

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Kimberly Howard

Alexandra Oliver-Davila

Project Staff

Chong Park

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

1949526, 1949484

Project Duration

2020 - 2024

Organization(s)

Sociedad Latina

Boston University

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Design Tools

Digital Mathematics Storytelling: Fraction Stories from Urban Emergent Communities

Kissy Canela — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 13:35:57 +0000

Digital Mathematics Storytelling: Fraction Stories from Urban Emergent Communities

Kissy Canela Wed, 04/15/2020 - 09:35

Digital Mathematics Storytelling: Fraction Stories from Urban Emergent Communities

Description

Many elementary school children in urban communities are not given the opportunity to relate what they see in school to the mathematics they see in their homes, families, and communities. This project will help solve this problem through a digital storytelling approach. It will investigate how elementary grade children can use mobile technology to create digital mathematics stories. These stories will be made from videos, photos, and audio. Students will connect mathematics from out-of-school settings to the mathematics they learn in school. This project will also create a teacher-friendly website of short videos that showcase the rich mathematics that exists in the everyday lives of urban children.

This project, submitted to the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) will develop a digital mathematics storytelling protocol for all teachers to use, understand the effects of digital storytelling on children?s mathematical identities, knowledge of fractions, and digital literacies, understand how using digital mathematics storytelling effects mathematics instruction, the level of equity in the classroom, and the level of connectedness that teachers feel to their communities, and create a nationwide, online community space for all teachers to learn how to use digital mathematics storytelling. In terms of research methods, a Participant Design Research methodology will be used so that students, their families, and community members will have a voice in developing the digital mathematics storytelling protocol. Narrative Inquiry and Constant Comparison Analysis will be used to analyze the impact of creating and sharing these stories. Over five years, this project will impact 12 elementary classrooms serving over 700 children. Research findings will be used to understand how digital mathematics storytelling connects to mathematics learning. Additionally, a free, online elementary teacher professional development website will be created that features stories authored by participant children, their families, and their communities. Finally, this project will help urban children learn how to use current technology to craft mathematics narratives that help them see themselves as mathematically powerful while still connected to their community.

WEBSITES

NSF Website(s)

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1943208&HistoricalAwards=false

Social Media

PROJECT MEMBERS

Principal Investigator(s)

Theodore Chao

Project Staff

Melissa Adams-Corral

Primary Contact

Theodore Chao

PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number

1943208

Project Duration

2020 - 2025

Organization(s)

The Ohio State University, OH

Project Work State

Technology Categories

Creative and Multimedia Technologies

Target Gradespan(s)

Elementary school (K-5)

Project Setting(s)

Formal Education

Geographic Location(s)

Suburban

Urban

Discipline(s)

Computer and informational technology science

Mathematical sciences

Thematic Group

STEM Learning and Learning Environments

Voices to Hear (V2H): Native American Youth Learning About Environmental Sciences, Related Careers and Engaging Their Communities through Podcasts

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:06:41 +0000

Voices to Hear (V2H): Native American Youth Learning About Environmental Sciences, Related Careers and Engaging Their Communities through Podcasts

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/11/2018 - 09:06

Voices to Hear (V2H): Native American Youth Learning About Environmental Sciences, Related Careers and Engaging Their Communities through Podcasts

Description

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). Voices to Hear (V2H) will use the oral tradition of storytelling to empower Native American students (middle school, high school and college) to engage in environmental decision-making and scientific communication, while building a stronger sense of their ethnic identity. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe (CdAT), University of Idaho, and University of New Hampshire research alliance will recruit and work with middle school, high school, and undergraduate students from the CdAT Reservation in Idaho and other Tribal youth who attend University of Idaho, to develop high-quality audio documentaries focused on environmental decision-making processes. The production of a three- or five-minute high- quality audio documentary/podcast is a multilayered, labor-intensive process that emphasizes scientific inquiry, patience, and perseverance, ultimately requiring observation, data collection, analysis, and building a summary or conclusion. While podcasts resonate strongly with the oral storytelling traditions of native American youth, they also provide a mechanism for conducting scientific inquiry. The project focuses on students learning about how to merge different knowledge systems (Western- mainstream/dominant science perspective, and Indigenous traditional knowledge) in order to become effective environmental decision-makers in the future. By investigating how community members resolve local environmental problems, students will be mentored by traditional and professional experts, and learn to utilize both STEM and cultural perspectives to solve environmental issues. The project will develop and implement a unique, vertically integrated mentoring model where Native undergraduate students will be trained to mentor high school and middle school students, thereby helping middle school and high school students learn about pathways to college and other careers.

The V2H project will examine how people from Native American communities negotiate their Indigenous knowledge sources with Western science to make decisions in their everyday lives. The project grounds itself in research on how student's ethnic identity impacts their science learning and also decision-making capacity in their everyday life. Project research will employ a mixed-methods design. The project will address several research questions: (1) What complex systems thinking attributes do students demonstrate? (2) How do students merge or negotiate different knowledge systems (Indigenous and Western)? (3) How do the students ethnic identity change through both audio documentary making and mentoring? (4) What aspects of complex thinking and integrating knowledge systems improve students attitudes toward traditional and non-traditional STEM topics? Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected and parallel data analysis will be implemented through the life of the project. In order to understand what complex thinking attributes students demonstrate, the project will employ a pre- and post- modeling activity, using Mental Modeler, software that allows individuals to define components of a system and show the interconnectedness between the components of that system. Project research and resources will be widely shared with educational researchers, educators, and Tribal communities.

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.