NSF Org:	DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL)
Recipient:	DREXEL UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	September 13, 2018
Latest Amendment Date:	September 13, 2018
Award Number:	1842272
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Arlene de Strulle adestrul@nsf.gov  (703)292-5117 DRL  Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU  Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date:	January 1, 2019
End Date:	December 31, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$769,752.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$769,752.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2018 = $769,752.00
History of Investigator:	Christopher Wright (Principal Investigator) cgw57@drexel.edu Ayana Allen-Handy (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Drexel University 3141 CHESTNUT ST PHILADELPHIA PA  US  19104-2875 (215)895-6342
Sponsor Congressional District:	03
Primary Place of Performance:	Drexel University Philadelphia PA  US  19104-2875
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	03
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	XF3XM9642N96
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	STEM + Computing (STEM+C) Part
Primary Program Source:	04001819DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s):	005Y00
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.076

ABSTRACT

Computing and computational thinking practices are ubiquitous in young people's lives. From the animations programmed in their video games to algorithms used to determine the next song selection from their playlists, today's youth are inundated with simple and complex computational models, tools, and practices. Nationally, computing and computational thinking practices are transforming STEM education and youth workforce preparedness. In fact, computational thinking practices are now recognized, alongside mathematics, as a fundamental core scientific practice in the Next Generation Science Standards. Consequently, much attention has been paid in recent years towards increasing opportunities for youth to engage in STEM content through computing and computational thinking practices. Access to these learning opportunities in computing, however, is inequitable. Youth of color are especially vulnerable to these inequities, as computational thinking practices are often devoid of the cultural capital and community engagement that research has shown to be particularly effective in attracting and engaging youth from underrepresented groups in STEM. This three-year research and design project will examine the intersectionality between computational thinking practices, interdisciplinary STEM learning, and culturally expressive practices on youths' learning and identity development. The model will test the feasibility of culturally sustaining learning environments and the foundational principles of hip hop as a model to engage and encourage middle school youth from predominately underrepresented groups to learn, connect to, and consider computing in their everyday lives.

Over a three-year period, an estimated 400 middle school aged youth will participate in the project and research. The youth will meet online and afterschool at community-based sites (i.e., makerspace, arts-based space, community center) in Gary, Indiana; Philadelphia, PA; and Cambridge, MA. A range of interdisciplinary STEM topics will be covered including science principles (e.g., physics), mathematics, engineering, computer programming, digital media, and cross-platform product planning and development through the lens of computational thinking or making practices. The youth will work collaboratively to develop and design their own interdisciplinary STEM-based computing projects, using hip hop as a basis. The online platform, cyber cypher, will be piloted by Youmedia Network Labs, a nationwide network of 28 makerspaces and the Cambridge Agenda for Children-Middle School Network, a network of afterschool programs in Cambridge, MA. With regards to the research, several salient questions will be explored: (1) How do middle school youth appropriate, resist, and/or transform ecologically situated resources and practices as they learn computational making practices? (2) How do variations in different culturally sustaining spaces affect the development of learning in interdisciplinary computational making practices? (3) How do middle school youth appropriate, resist, and/or transform ecologically situated resources as they construct pluralistic computational making identities and within different learning environments? and (4) Across the three sites, what are the design principles of the culturally sustaining computational making environments that contribute to computational making practices and STEM learning and identity development? Data will be collected from surveys, field observations, computational making & design skills assessments, and multimodal design narratives. The results of the research and an external evaluation will be analyzed and disseminated via academic and practitioner targeted journals, conferences, project participant community events, online communities, and social media.

This project is funded by STEM + C which supports research and the development of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to the integration of computing within STEM teaching and learning for preK-12 students in both formal and informal settings.

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.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Collaborative Research: Using Culturally Sustaining STEM + Computing Learning Environments to Explore Learning and Identity developed and investigated four different models of interdisciplinary experiences that drew on youth and hip hop culture and the cultures of STEM and computing. In different configurations, middle and high school students learned about parallels and intersections between computation, STEM, and the arts of hip-hop–including projects that ranged from making and coding physical computational devices with sensors to studying adaptive algorithms in streaming services. The research sought to understand how young people learned and the ways in which their identities as STEM learners and doers intersected with their identities as artists, musicians, dancers, people. For example, one main finding includes describing resources in settings and in communities that support Black girls (and others) doing computational STEM. Computing learning is often thought of as interaction between an individual and a computational device. Our findings indicate that computing is deeply cultural, and the cultural dimensions should be heavily engaged with when working with people who come from demographic groups historically and currently marginalized in STEM and computing, such as Black women. Place-based learning environments that center cooperative and collective goals, such as creating an interactive space for others to learn, the material and cultural resources of the location where participants are from help learners make connections to their identities and provide anchors for learning. Resources in the settings and communities included open spaces, spaces in which both arts-based and computational activities took place, the tools of hip hop including music creation, multi-age and intergenerational grouping, and spaces with historical resonance in communities.

Overlapping dimensions of hip hop and computing included: interactivity and self-expression, making do, breaking down and building up technology and codes, as well as claiming and making space, exploring rules and patterns as algorithms through music- and dance-making. Group projects challenged young people to re-imagine the outdoor space as their own interactive computational hip-hop space, encouraging them to claim the space as their own through self-expression and create spaces for others to express themselves.

Research also focused on the design of culturally sustaining assessments in STEM and computing environments. Culturally sustaining assessments require at least three dimensions: 1) help educators understand what learners learn about computing and STEM, 2) opportunities for learning expressing and critiquing ideas in academic and youth languages, and 3) act as a tool for understanding and critiquing the existing social order. The assessment task we developed asks participants to create a music playlist such as they would on a streaming service and then reflect on the characteristics of the songs and how they may or may not be related. The assessment further asks learners to critique streaming services, the collection of personal data, and corporate algorithms.

Through this work, we argue for a re-imagining of computational and STEM learning opportunities where learners can center their own identities within an ecology, rather than those that center curriculum or content. Too often, STEM programs are designed with unexamined assumptions about their cultural ecologies–and that designs for learning should focus on programming and activities. Hip-hop is a way to ecologically situate computational making within a set of culturally sustaining practices. Thus, educators must transform ecologies for learning, not merely assimilate learners into the already marginalizing computation and STEM ecologies that have persisted, particularly for populations who have not been positively impacted by past and current predominant pedagogies and remain underrepresented in STEM and computing fields.

 

 

 

Last Modified: 04/08/2024
Modified by: Christopher Wright

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