Interdisciplinary Incubation STEM Design Challenges through Community Engagement with Academic and Industry Professionals

About This Grant

From food production to processing to distribution, food systems are an integral part of the local, regional, and national economy. These systems also drive STEM innovation and require interdisciplinary actions from across STEM fields. The need for STEM-related food system jobs shows the importance of high school youth exploring related STEM careers and developing skills to solve complex food system problems. At the same time, technology in K-12 education often centers on the use of technology, rather than understanding the role of technology in complex STEM systems. The Internet of Things, such as smartphones, sensors, and remote-control systems, includes digital technologies that can help students learn how to use technology to collect and manage digital data and actively use data to make decisions. Building on the outputs and outcomes of previous USDA investments, this project will design and study professional development and curricula that (1) advance urban high school STEM teachers' enactment of learner centered teaching; (2) support urban high school students' design thinking using the Internet of Things to solve incubation design challenges; and (3) develop students' connections to local STEM workforce opportunities through community and scientist partnerships. This project will directly impact 11 urban high school teachers and 2,020 students attending 5 urban high schools by supporting students' STEM knowledge, problem-solving skills, design thinking with the Internet of Things, and interest in pursuing STEM careers. This project is based on and seeks to further inform frameworks such as learner-centered teaching and design thinking. These frameworks will be used to design and implement teachers' professional development and high school curricula that engage students in local food system incubation design challenges via the Internet of Things and community partnerships. Qualitative case studies using observations, interviews, reflections, and artifacts will address teacher impact questions: 1) What were teachers' dispositions, self-efficacy, and learner centered teaching enactment when connecting the food system problem to students, their families, and the community? 2) How did learner centered teaching develop community relationships? Additionally, longitudinal concurrent mixed methods case studies using journals, focus groups, and pre-post surveys will explore student impacts: 3) Did students have higher levels of design thinking mindset and situated STEM motivation upon completion of the incubation design challenges? 4) How did design thinking in solving local food system problems enhance students' community connections and STEM career interests? Resulting professional development and curricular materials will serve as an innovative model for 20 STEM Certified High Schools and Career Centers (serving 18,170 students from 54 high schools). Research results will be shared through community presentations, local conferences such as the Indiana Small Farm Conference, the Science Education Research Center, as well as national conferences and journals. 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.