Lisa White - US grants

Escape rooms are an engaging and increasingly popular game format in which a team of players is ?locked? in a room and challenged to solve a series of narrative-embedded puzzles encoded in the room's artifacts in order to ?escape? within a set period of time. The University of California Museum of Paleontology, with partners University of Kansas Natural History Museum and the California Academy of Sciences, aim to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a ?serious game? (i.e., a game designed for a purpose other than entertainment) based on the escape room model. Our traveling/loanable pop-up escape room and associated extension activities will engage diverse families (ages 8 and up) in museums and libraries in solving a biomedical mystery that teaches fundamental concepts in biology, engages critical-thinking and collaboration skills, and stimulates interest in biomedical careers. STEM Escape will address NGSS-aligned content central to medical research ? in particular, it will communicate basic concepts regarding evolutionary relationships, a topic with relevance to a wide variety of medical applications, such as determining the source of emerging infectious diseases, tracking the progression of disease within a host, and identifying new medicines. The project is designed to lay the groundwork for extended family interactions surrounding scientific content and biomedical careers. The immersive game will be supplemented by a set of solo and docent-led follow-up activities that reinforce key concepts and emphasize connections between players' experience in the game and biomedical research careers. Learners will also receive takeaway media (e.g., activity book) that highlights a diverse set of NIH-funded researchers whose work directly relies on evolutionary patterns/processes. Caregivers will have the option of receiving a follow-up email with free at-home activities. The themed inflatable pop-up room will be wheelchair-accessible and all materials will be bilingual in English and Spanish. The STEM Escape experience will be developed with and for the diverse audiences visiting urban/suburban natural history museums and libraries, as well as with and for rural families, whom we will reach through rural libraries. The project will also produce and evaluate a suite of support materials to facilitate institutional adoption and deployment of the experience. Nine host sites across the country have committed to hosting the room (with an additional two sites in the planning stages), and after the life of the grant, the room will continue to make an impact as a rentable traveling exhibit. Long term, this project will improve the public's understanding of medically relevant evolutionary content, increase interest in biomedical careers, particularly among underserved groups targeted, and improve our understanding of how immersive games can be used to serve educational objectives.

The University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) will lead a one-year virtual conference to establish a Professional Learning Community (PLC) of community college instructors and graduate students to support the development of teaching resources for diverse audiences. The PLC builds upon existing partnerships with community colleges and resources developed as part of the ACCESS (Advancing Community College Education and Student Success) program to make the geosciences and practices of scientific inquiry more accessible to all learners. While Earth science literacy and perspectives from diverse stakeholders are essential for addressing 21st century societal and environmental challenges, the geosciences remain one of the least diverse STEM disciplines. By partnering with community colleges, the program will serve students who identify as low-income, first-generation, or underrepresented minorities. The ACCESS program is uniquely positioned to help enhance online and in-person geoscience learning experiences for students while simultaneously helping community college instructors and UC Berkeley graduate students develop inclusive pedagogical practices to enhance their teaching skills.

The ACCESS PLC will support the revision and implementation of inquiry-based lessons for diverse audiences using active, equitable, and inclusive learning practices known as Model-Based Inquiry. Through a year-long series of workshops and meetings, the PLC will develop lessons that deepen students’ understanding of the Earth history and processes, which is necessary to contextualize the complexity and urgency of global climate and local environmental challenges. Efforts to enhance STEM education that focus on issues related to diversity and inclusive practices are typically one-time efforts and not a continual means of providing professional development and support for instructors. Year-long support for instructors and iterative development of resources in the UCMP ACCESS PLC will help transform and sustain shifts in teaching practices as we face the ongoing challenges of providing online and blended learning experiences for students.

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.

The Voices of Integrating Culture in the Earth Sciences (VOICES) is a collaborative pilot study focused on identifying new pathways to dismantle persistent barriers in the recruitment, retention, and representation of different racial, ethnic and cultural groups, including the intersectionality of those with disabilities.VOICES contributes to a greater awareness of cultural knowledge and best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Earth sciences, with implications of reaching a broader segment of the STEM community. This project will target key areas of engagement related to personal identity, feeling of belonging, history of place, and sense of security from underrepresented minorities. VOICES uses creative strategies within a social behavioral framework, to address those elements that have the potential to shift from the traditions and legacies of a historically exclusive discipline into a more diverse Earth science community. Including voices from distinct cultural values and perspectives that are commonly undervalued, can result in changing exclusionary teaching, learning, and research practices. By highlighting individual voices as part of a collective whole, a more powerful, awakened, and inclusive community has the potential to transform strategies to engage leaders and learners in Earth science disciplines.

The Voices of Integrating Culture in the Earth Sciences project will invoke the power of disaggregated stories and individual cultural identities that persevere despite the traditional expectations, values, and methods of teaching and learning Earth science. VOICES has four primary elements: Identity, Belonging, Place, and Security. Each element reflects different contexts within Earth science education (e.g., field and classroom learning environments, and career development) for groups of diverse students, faculty and professionals. Using a mixture of social behavioral approaches including surveys focus groups and 3 thematic workshops, VOICES will focus on the interrelationship of Identity, Belonging, Place and Security through the lens of those who are commonly underrepresented in the Earth sciences. Thematic workshops (Nagaajiwanaang, Barataria and Potomac) use cultural histories and places to anchor workshop activities and outcomes around diversity and inclusion approaches to integrating culture in field experiences. VOICES represents a novel and highly interdisciplinary approach will lead to: 1) a more culturally robust science community through broadening the awareness of cultural and intersectional knowledge across multiple underrepresented groups, 2) the establishment of a national diversity champions network VOICES Net as a sustainable communication platform, and 3) the design and deployment of best culturally inclusive practices for welcoming all students and scientists from groups underrepresented in the Earth sciences.

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.