9554219 Brown We seek a planning grant of $99,542 to devise and implement a research program for testing the potential of electronic networks for increasing the number of skilled and motivated African American and Mexican American students in the field of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The work to be done in the planning phase will lead to a final project proposal. The final project will study whether electronically linked communities of members engaged in these fields can counteract features of African American and Mexican American communities that discourage children and adolescents from studding and pursuing careers in these fields. Social cognitive theory suggests that students in 5th or 6th grade who establish strong connections with supportive, ethnically similar peers and mentors who are successful in science and math field- and maintain those connections through graduate school-are likely to become excited by as well as confident and competent in those disciplines. Unfortunately, potential peers and mentors rarely live or work sufficiently close to economically disadvantaged Mexican Americans and African American communities to forge such relationship. A special contribution of the final project will be the first comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of electronic technology in overcoming the sparse distribution of appropriate peers and mentors for these traditionally under-represented groups, and thus of promoting excellence through diversity in the science and engineering academic pipeline. During the twelve-month planning phase, the principal investigators will select and convene an advisory board of 15-20 people who represent various stakeholders in the final project: students, parents, teachers, and a variety of African American and Mexican American professionals in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The Technimagineering Team, which includes the Principal Investigators, will determine: (1) strategies for selecting and training participants; (2) curriculum materials and resources; (3) networking technology; (4) configurations linking students to peers and mentors; (5) final project evaluation strategy; (6) means of documenting and disseminating project results; and (7) self-sustaining strategies. ??
