Syracuse University School of Education Professor Xiaoxia “Silvie” Huang has been awarded a nearly $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for an Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) project.
With “Engaging Refugee and Immigrant Youth in STEM Through Culturally Relevant and Place-Based Digital Storytelling,” Huang— an associate professor in the Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation program—aims to engage culturally and linguistically diverse refugee and immigrant middle school students in co-designing culturally relevant and place-based STEM learning experiences through immersive, virtual reality (VR) storytelling, in order to support their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and career aspirations.
During this two-year project, Project Investigator Huang will collaborate with an interdisciplinary team, including co-PIs Professor Sharon Dotger, of the School of Education, and Professor Brice Nordquist, of the College of Arts and Sciences. Also joining the research team are professors Nicholas Bowman and Daniel Pacheco, of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and professors Matthew Potteiger and Stewart Diemontof the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
“During the VR storytelling co-design process, local middle schoolers will expand their STEM disciplinary knowledge and skills in agriculture, environmental science, and entry-level computer coding,” explains Huang. “This learning will be deeply rooted in their lived experience, with immersive stories that interweave their identities, cultures, and interaction with local environments. The goal of this project is to increase participants’ STEM learning, identity, and self-efficacy and to broaden their interests in STEM career pathways.”
The project team will collaborate with various community partners and organizations during its implementation, including North Side Learning Center, the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (MOST), Salt City Harvest Farm, and interconnected projects and programs organized through the Engaged Humanities Network (including Natural Science Explorers and Write Out). Huang’s project also will engage 10 Syracuse University undergraduate and three graduate students as mentors for the middle school participants.
“The goal of this project is to increase participants’ STEM learning, identity, and self-efficacy and to broaden their interests in STEM career pathways.”
Silvie Huang
“This exciting and interdisciplinary research project brings together collaborators from four different schools and colleges and a host of community partners to advance culturally sustaining STEM opportunities for refugee and immigrant students in the local Syracuse community,” says Professor Beth Ferri, Associate Dean for Research, School of Education. “Drawing on cultural and community assets and engaged interdisciplinary learning, the project is as ambitious as it is innovative.”
Huang expects the project will produce not only the young participants’ digitally immersive stories but also curriculum modules for facilitators and participants, supporting the co-design process, as well as a practical guide for using community-based research to involve refugee and immigrant youth in STEM.