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
resourceresearchPark, Outdoor, and Garden Programs
There is growing concern that opportunities for outdoor learning by school students in England have decreased substantially in recent years. In response to this, and recent Government calls for ‘schools to make better use of the outdoor classroom as a context for teaching and learning’, the Field Studies Council (FSC) and several partner organisations commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake a review of research on outdoor learning.
This document summarises the key findings of this review, which critically examined 150 pieces of research on outdoor
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark RickinsonJustin DillonKelly TeameyMarian MorrisMee Young ChoiDawn SandersPauline Benefield
This project, an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot, managed by the University of Nevada, Reno, addresses the grand challenge of increasing underrepresentation regionally in the advanced manufacturing sector. Using the state's Learn and Earn Program Advanced Career Pathway (LEAP) as the foundation, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities will support and prepare Hispanic students for the region's workforce in advanced manufacturing which includes partnerships with Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC), the state's Governor's Office of Economic Development, Charles River Laboratories, Nevada Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (Nevada EPSCoR) and the K-12 community.
The expected outcomes from the project will inform the feasibility, expandability and transferability of the LEAP framework in diversifying the state's workforce locally and the STEM workforce nationally. Formative and summative evaluation will be conducted with a well-matched comparison group. Dissemination of project results will be disseminated through the Association for Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU), STEM conferences and scholarly journals.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David ShintaniJulie EllsworthKarsten HeiseRobert StachlewitzRegina Tempel
Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering with the Maricopa County Community Colleges District and K-12 school districts along with industry partners, Honeywell, Intel, and Texas Instruments, and the Helios Education Foundation will implement an NSF Design and Development Launch Pilot to address the broadening participation objectives of enhancing entry and persistence of underrepresented groups in engineering. This alliance will identify and develop effective mechanisms to impact entry and persistence in engineering at scale and to expand the effort for the region, serving as a model for Arizona and other universities nationally. Diversity is often seen as a valuable commodity for fostering innovation and creativity in engineering, and extant theoretical and empirical literature provides evidence of the importance a diversified engineering workforce can have to spark scientific and technological innovation to solve complex problems. Nationally, there is a consistent shortage of available diverse engineers and scientists, which is believed to compromise the country's ability to sustain its leadership position as a global force. This project will create engineering pathways for underrepresented groups and identify and develop effective mechanisms that impact these students' entry and persistence in engineering.
A total of 500 high school students, 100 2-year college students, and 200 four-year college students will participate in the project. The research measures will focus on students' academic/career awareness and interest in engineering and the degree to which students develop a strong identity and affinity for engineering. It is expected that the alliance affiliates will develop into adaptive systems that respond to needs of first-generation students at various pathway junctures. This project has the potential to transform educational experiences and support systems for first-generation students.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kyle SquiresRoberta Anslow-HammondMaria ReyesJames CollofelloTirupalavanam Ganesh
The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Advanced Computing Center, Chaminade University of Honolulu (CUH), and the Georgia Institute of Technology will lead this NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot (DDLP) to establish a model for data science preparation of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) students at the high school and undergraduate levels. The project is premised on the promise of NHPI communities gaining access to, and the ability to work with, large data sets to tackle emerging problems in the Pacific. Such agency over "big data" sets that are relevant to Pacific issues, and contemporary skills in data science, analytics and visualization have the potential to be transformative for community improvement efforts. The effort has the potential to advance knowledge, instructional pedagogy and practices to improve NHPI high school and undergraduate students performance in and attraction to STEM education and careers.
The project team will work to: 1) Increase interest and proficiency in data science and visualization among NHPI high school and undergraduate students through a summer immersion experience that bridges computation and culture; 2) Build data science capacity at an NHPI serving undergraduate institution (CUH) through creation of a certificate program; and 3) Develop and expand partnerships with other organizations with related goals working with NHPI populations. The month-long summer training for 20 NHPI college students, and five NHPI high school students, takes place at CUH and focuses on data science, visualization, and virtual reality, including working on problem sets that require data science approaches and incorporate geographically, socially- and culturally-relevant research themes.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kelly GaitherRosalia Gomez
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The University of Maine will address the grand challenge of increasing Native American participation in the science,technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) enterprise in an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project addressing culturally relevant pedagogy, incorporating Community Elders, Cultural Knowledge Keepers, and mainstream secondary and higher education institutions in the development of STEM pedagogy that can be replicated to other underrepresented and underserved populations. Partners in the effort include the Wabanaki Youth in Science program (WaYS)(a non-profit organization), Salish Kootenai College (a Tribal College), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (a research university), the National Indian Education Association (a non-profit membership organization) and the current NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project at the University of Maine (the Stormwater Research Management Team (SMART)). This NSF INCLUDES partnership provides students with evidence-based STEM activities involving culturally relevant internships, mentoring, STEM professional development activities and other support. Non-native students will reciprocally participate in Native American learning environments.
The foundation for the project's activities is based on the WaYS program in science education that incorporates Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). The goals of the project are to: 1) create and integrate curriculum that embraces TEK and western science as equal partners; 2)develop and implement protocols to incorporate a continued mentorship program for WaYS and STREAM engineering students; 3)develop a framework to bridge the gap between high school and college; and 4) foster collaboration among Community Elders, Cultural Knowledge Keepers and University of Maine faculty in a model that could be transferred to other communities. Internal and external evaluation activities will add to the scholarly literature on educating Native Americans and non-native students in STEM disciplines. Dissemination of project results will include published peer-reviewed journal articles on newly developed pedagogy and conference presentations at the American Indian Science and Engineering (AISES) national conference, the National Diversity in STEM Conference, National Science Teachers Association, AAAS, ASEE and the National NSF INCLUDES Network.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Darren RancoJohn DaigleMindy CrandallShaleen Jain
This NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot, "Expanding Diversity in Energy and Environmental Sustainability (EDEES)", will develop a network of institutions in the United States mid-Atlantic region to recruit, train, and prepare a significant number of underrepresented, underserved, and underprivileged members of the American society in the areas of alternative energy generation and environmental sustainability. Researchers from Delaware State University (DSU) will lead the effort in collaboration with scientists and educators from the University of Delaware, Delaware Technical Community College, University of Maryland, and Stony Brook University. The program comprises a strong educational component in different aspects of green energy generation and environmental sciences including the development of a baccalaureate degree in Green Energy Engineering and the further growth of the recently established Renewable Energy Education Center at our University. The program comprises an active involvement of students from local K-12 institutions, including Delaware State University Early College High School. The character of the University as a Historically Black College (HBCU) and the relatively high minority population of the region will facilitate the completion of the goal to serve minority students. The program will also involve the local community and the private sector by promoting the idea of a green City of Dover, Delaware, in the years to come.
The goal of EDEES-INCLUDES pilot comprises the enrollment of at least twenty underrepresented minority students in majors related to green energy and environmental sustainability. It also entails the establishment of a baccalaureate degree in Green Energy Engineering at DSU. The program is expected to strengthen the pathway from two-year energy-related associate degree programs to four-year degrees by ensuring at least five students/year transfer to DSU in energy-related programs. The pilot is also expected to increase the number of high school graduates from underrepresented groups who choose to attend college in STEM majors. Based on previous experience and existing collaborations, the partner institutions expect to grow as an integrated research-educational network where students will be able to obtain expertise in the competitive field of green energy. The pilot program comprises a deep integration of education and research currently undergoing in the involved institutions. In collaboration with its partner institutions, DSU plans to consistently and systematically involve students from the K-12 system to nurture the future recruitment efforts of the network. A career in Green Energy Engineering is using and expanding up existing infrastructure and collaborations. The program will involve the local community through events, workshops and open discussions on energy related fields using social networks and other internet technology in order to promote energy literacy.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Aristides MarcanoMohammed KhanGulnihal OzbayGabriel Gwanmesia
Underrepresented minorities (URMs) are less than 10% of engineering faculty, despite comprising nearly a third of the nation's population. A common explanation for their disproportionate representation, at the engineering faculty level, is related to a lack of access to effective mentorship from other faculty. This NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project will expand a new mentoring and advocacy-networking paradigm to bring together two stakeholder groups: (1) underrepresented minorities (URMs) who are engineering faculty and (2) well-regarded (primarily non-URM) emeriti/retired engineering faculty. A previously-funded NSF project found that this mentor-mentee pairing was viewed favorable by both parties and beneficial, particularly by the URM engineering faculty. Because of these results, the investigators proposed to scale, test, and evaluate the approach on a broader scale by creating national infrastructural network partners to help increase capacity to serve a greater number of URM engineering faculty and to introduce tele-mentoring and training models to serve URM faculty who work in remote geographical locations with very little access to mentors.
The project will use a multi-phased phenomenological, mixed method research design to gain greater understanding of the ways in which the URM faculty and emeriti faculty experience the opportunities afforded by the project. Further, the investigators plan to collect data to examine how project participants perceive and experience conventional, direct communications (e.g., telephone calls, e-mail, and in-person meetings)through the mentoring process versus the use of Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs), anthropomorphic interface agents that engage a user in real-time dialogue by using verbal-nonverbal channels to emulate the in-person experience. This project has the potential to broaden participation in the engineering professoriate and opens up new possibilities for supporting URM engineering faculty.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Comas HaynesValerie ConleySylvia MendezKinnis GoshaRosario Gerhardt
Improving retention rates in postsecondary engineering degree programs is the single most effective approach for addressing the national shortage of skilled engineers. Both mathematics course placement and performance are strong graduation predictors in engineering, even after controlling for demographic characteristics. Underrepresented students (e.g., rural students, low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color) are disproportionately represented in cohorts that enter engineering programs not yet calculus-ready. Frequently, the time and cost of obtaining an engineering degree is increased, and the likelihood of obtaining the degree is also reduced. This educational problem is particularly acute for African American students who attended select high schools in South Carolina, with extremely high-poverty rates. As a result, the investigators proposed an NSF INCLUDES Launch Pilot project to develop a statewide consortium in South Carolina - comprising all of the public four-year institutions with ABET-approved engineering degree programs, all of the technical colleges, and 118 high schools with 70% or higher poverty rates, to pinpoint and address the barriers that prevent these students from being calculus ready in engineering.
This NSF INCLUDES Launch Pilot project will map completion/attrition pathways of students by collecting robust cross-sectional data to identify and understand the complex linkages between and behind critical decisions. Such data have not been available to this extent, especially focused on diverse populations. Further, by developing structural equation models (SEMs), the investigators will be able to build on extant research, contributing directly to understanding the relative impact of a range of latent variables on the development of engineering identity, particularly among African American, rural, low-income, and first-generation engineering students. Results of the pilot interventions are likely to contribute to the empirical and theoretical literature that focus on engineering persistence among underrepresented populations. Project plans also include developing a centralized database compatible to the Multiple Institution Database for Investigation of Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD) project to share institutional data with K-12 and postsecondary administrators, engineering educators, and education researchers with NSF INCLUDES projects and beyond.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Anand GramopadhyeDerek BrownEliza GallagherKristin Frady
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This NSF INCUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot will increase the recruitment, retention, and matriculation of racial and ethnic minorities in STEM Ph.D. programs contributing to hazards and disaster research. Increasing STEM focused minorities on hazards mitigation, and disaster research areas will benefit society and contribute to the achievements of specific, desired societal outcomes following disasters. The Minority SURGE Capacity in Disasters (SURGE) launch pilot will provide the empirical research to identify substantial ways to increase the underrepresentation of minorities in STEM disciplines interested in hazards mitigation and disaster research. Increasing the involvement of qualified minorities will help solve the broader vulnerability concerns in these communities and help advance the body of knowledge through the diversity of thought and creative problem solving in scholarship and practice. Utilizing workshops and a multifaceted mentorship program SURGE creates a new model that addresses the diversity concerns in both STEM and disaster fields, and make American communities more resilient following natural disasters. This project will be of interest to policymakers, educators and the general public.
The Minority SURGE Capacity in Disasters (SURGE) NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot will enhance the social capital of racial and ethnic minority communities by increasing their networks, connections, and access to disaster management decision-making among members of their community from STEM fields. The four-fold goals of SURGE are to: (1) increase the number of minority graduate researchers in STEM fields with a disaster focus; (2) develop and guide well-trained, qualified disaster scholars from STEM fields; (3) provide academic and professional mentorship for next generation minority STEM scholars in hazards mitigation and disaster research; and (4) develop professional and research opportunities that involve outreach and problem solving for vulnerable communities in the U.S. The SURGE project is organized as a lead-organization network through the University of Nebraska at Omaha and includes community partners. As a pilot project, SURGE participation is limited to graduate students from research-intensive universities across the country. Each student will attend workshops and training programs developed by the project leads. SURGE investigators will conduct project evaluation and assessment of their workshops, training, and mentorship projects. Results from evaluations and assessments will be presented at STEM and disaster-related conferences and published in peer-reviewed academic journals.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
DeeDee BennettLori PeekTerri NortonHans Louis-Charles
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
The Broadening Experience for Scientific Training: Beginning Enhancement Track ("BEST-BET"), an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project, draws upon the expertise of five research-intensive institutions that have developed innovative programing in career and professional development for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees in biomedical research. The goal of the project is to expand the scope and leverage the work so as to engage students earlier in their career exploration. Specifically, the project will target undergraduates who may not be aware of the multitude of career options available to them. These include opportunities in academia, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, science communication, science policy, and technology transfer/patent law. The effort will focus on undergraduates who come from populations generally underrepresented in STEM fields, including but not limited to ethnically, racially and socioeconomically underserved communities. The grant will support educational opportunities for students at minority-serving institutions and will assess the impact of providing new opportunities to this community. The critical contributions of a diverse and inclusive community are essential to progress in all STEM fields. By promoting diversity in education, this project aims to engage undergraduate students at a point in their professional development that could enable participation in a wide range of workforce opportunities so as to advance the progress of science and national health.
The focus of BEST BET will be to use a collective impact framework to connect the "BEST network" of institutions to partners engaged in undergraduate education of students from underrepresented communities who are interested in the life sciences. The underlying premise is that career exploration focused on opportunities that go beyond physician training will enable engagement of this community of learners in the life science workforce beyond the pre-med track and keep them engaged in degree completion. Multiple strategies will be used to attain the goals of BEST BET. They are organized in the context of two major objectives roughly divided into the scope of planned activities. The first objective focuses on "career exploration" and offers strategies to assist partner institutions to build career and skill development capacities. The second is grounded in an enhanced experience of BEST site visits whereby undergraduates will have the opportunity to envision life as a graduate student and beyond. These strategies will likely enhance persistence to complete the baccalaureate degree and move onto doctoral programs.