Developing a Multi-Disciplinary STEM Education Model for Multilingual Learners That Meets Societal Challenges

This project contributes to advancing knowledge on STEM education by harnessing the convergence of STEM subjects, including data science and computer science, to empower all students, including multilingual learners (MLs), to address STEM-related societal challenges. The ultimate goal of the project is to prepare all students for the STEM workforce. The project seeks to make two significant contributions. First, the project will develop a conceptual framework for multidisciplinary STEM education that provides all students, including MLs, the ability to engage with societal challenges. Second, over the course of 4 years, the project will translate this conceptual framework into practical implementation in classrooms, creating a comprehensive innovation involving (a) a STEM education instructional unit centered around a societal challenge; (b) a teacher professional development (PD) program to facilitate successful implementation of the instructional unit in classrooms; and (c) a suite of validated instruments to measure the impact of the innovation on both students and teachers, evaluate the integrity of implementation, and assess its potential across instructional settings. The conceptual framework that will ground this project addresses societal challenges and employs the convergence of multiple STEM subjects to explain these challenges. The purpose is to empower all students in STEM learning by recognizing and nurturing their assets, such as transnational experiences and rich meaning-making resources, toward ensuring all students' participation in STEM education. The project will take place in New York City Public Schools, the largest school district in the nation, and will be conducted in three phases over 4 years. Phase 1 (Years 1, 2, and 3) will employ design-based research to develop, test, and refine the instructional unit and PD program iteratively. Phase 2 (Years 2 and 3) will focus on developing a suite of instruments to study the innovation, ensuring that they are valid and suitable for future larger scale studies. Phase 3 (Year 4) will finalize the instructional unit, PD program, and instruments, making them ready for implementation and broader use. The conceptual framework, innovation of the instructional unit and PD program, and instruments will pave the way for future large-scale field trials. Furthermore, the project will serve as a foundation for extending STEM education to harness innovations in STEM disciplines, such as AI, and address societal challenges more broadly. The Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. 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.