7/7/23, 11:16 AM NSF Award Search: Award # 1906895 - Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence

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Award Abstract # 1906895

Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence

DRL
NSF Org:
Division Of Research On Learning

Recipient: YOUTH RADIO

Initial Amendment Date: June 20, 2019

Latest Amendment Date: July 21, 2021

Award Number: 1906895

Award Instrument: Continuing Grant

Sandra Welch
swelch@nsf.gov  (703)292-5094
Program Manager:
DRL  Division Of Research On Learning
EDU  Directorate for STEM Education

Start Date: July 1, 2019

End Date: June 30, 2022 (Estimated)

Total Intended Award Amount: $2,249,999.00

Total Awarded Amount to Date: $2,249,999.00

FY 2019 = $1,461,981.00
Funds Obligated to Date:
FY 2021 = $788,018.00

Elisabeth Soep (Principal Investigator)

History of Investigator: lissa@youthradio.org

Ellin O'Leary (Co-Principal Investigator)

Youth Radio
1701 Broadway
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Oakland
CA  US  94612-2105
(510)251-1101

Sponsor Congressional District: 13

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7/7/23, 11:16 AM NSF Award Search: Award # 1906895 - Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence

Youth Radio
1701 Broadway
Primary Place of Performance:
Oakland
CA  US  94612-2105

Primary Place of Performance

13
Congressional District:

Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): R15MPFWYNV65

Parent UEI: R5T8Q2APBLZ8

ITEST-Inov Tech Exp Stu & Teac,

NSF Program(s):
AISL

040106 NSF Education & Human Resource

Primary Program Source: 040106 NSF Education & Human Resource
045176 H-1B FUND, EHR, NSF

Program Reference Code(s): 102Z

Program Element Code(s): 7227, 7259

Award Agency Code: 4900

Fund Agency Code: 4900

Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing
Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and
resources for use in a variety of settings.

Despite the ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence (AI), public understanding of how it works and
is used is limited This project will research, design, and develop innovative approaches
focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for under-represented youth ages 14-24. Program
components include live social media chats with AI leaders, app development, journalistic
investigations of ethical issues in machine learning, and review of AI-based consumer
products. Youth Radio is a non-profit media and tech organizations that provides youth with
skills in STEM, journalism, arts, and communications. They engage 250 youth annually
through free after-school classes and work shifts. Participants are 90% youth of color and
80% low income. Project partners include the MIT Media Lab which developed App Inventor
which allows novice users to build fully functional apps. Staff from Google will serve as a
project advisor on the curriculum. The project has exceptional national reach through the
dissemination of its media and apps through national outlets such as NPR and Teen Vogue as
well as various platforms including online, on-air, as well as presentations, publications, and
training tools. The project broadens participation by engaging these low income youth of
color in developing skills critical to the workforce of the future. It will help prepare an
upcoming generation of Artificial Intelligence creators, users, and consumers who
understand the technology and embrace and encourage its potential.It will give them the

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7/7/23, 11:16 AM NSF Award Search: Award # 1906895 - Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence

necessary knowledge and opportunities for careers in an AI-driven future.

This project is grounded in sociocultural learning theory and practice and is interdisciplinary
by design. The theoretical framework holds that Computational Thinking plus Critical
Pedagogy leads to Critical Computational Literacy. Also, Digital Age Civics plus Participatory
Culture leads to Civic Imagination helping youth build a better world through technology.
The driving research questions include: What do underrepresented youth understand about
AI and its role in society? What are the ethical dilemmas posed by AI from their vantage
point? What are the features of an engaging ethics-centered pedagogy with AI? What impact
do the AI products developed by the youth have on the target audience? The research
design will use ethnographic techniques and design research to study and analyze youth
learning. Data sources will include baseline surveys, audio recordings and transcriptions
from learning sessions with the participants, research analytic memos, focus group
interviews, student-generating artifacts of learning and finished products, etc. The design-
based approach will enable systematic, evidence-based iteration on the initiative's activities,
pedagogical approach and products. An independent summative evaluation will provide
complementary data and perspective to triangulate with the research findings.

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Lee, Clifford H. and Gobir, Nimah and Gurn, Alex and Soep, Elisabeth "In the Black Mirror:
Youth Investigations Into Artificial Intelligence: In the Black MirrorYouth Investigations Into
Artificial Intelligence" ACM Transactions on Computing Education , 2022
https://doi.org/10.1145/3484495 Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by
the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Understanding AI was a research-to-practice partnership that

promoted critical AI literacy by partnering with young people
who are underserved in STEM to produce original media reaching
audiences in the millions. It was, to our knowledge, the first
initiative of its kind, and it was carried out as a cross-sector
collaboration between YR Media, an Oakland-based national
training center and platform for BIPOC content creators, and MIT
App Inventor, an intuitive and accessible programming
environment that allows everyone to build fully functional apps
for phones and tablets.

The young people at the center of the initiative and guiding its
every phase were teens and young adults of color aged 14 to 24,

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7/7/23, 11:16 AM NSF Award Search: Award # 1906895 - Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence
as well as those contending with economic and other barriers to
STEM learning and employment. 

Through Understanding AI, young people grappled with tech

ethics and equity through experimentation and analysis,
discovered pathways into STEM learning and career
development, and produced AI-based media and tools that
deepened their STEM engagement and powered robust science
communications campaigns reaching peers and thought-leaders.
The initiative cultivated a talent pool of emerging developers,
designers, reporters, and educators uniquely prepared to create,
critique, and report on AI through an ethics-and-equity lens,
which is desperately needed by the digital media and tech
sectors as well as the general public. 

Media series and products released through this initiative

included major investigations and interactive experiences looking
into facial recognition, deepfakes, and virtual proctoring
software; an interview series highlighting emerging and
established BIPOC AI creators and critics; and ongoing coverage
of AI-powered tools and platforms by teen and young adult
contributors from across the country. MIT App Inventor?s open-
source tutorials released through this initiative allowed young
people to build their own AI tools, experiencing first-hand the
limitations and benefits of emerging technologies and gaining
perspectives on the social impact of AI. Outlets for these
products included YR Media?s own site, social channels, and
award-winning podcast; national media organizations including
NPR; and MIT App Inventor?s platform reaching more than 14
million users. Organic re-sharing of the content by leaders in
education equity, artificial intelligence, and STEM was evidence
of the public appetite for the work, its quality, and its impact. 

The research carried out across the initiative combined an

original survey, focus groups, interviews, artifact analysis, and
participant observation to explore: 1) what young people do and
do not understand about AI and its role in society, 2) the most
urgent questions and ethical dilemmas AI raises for them, and
3) the educational conditions that promote STEM engagement
among BIPOC youth and others who have the most to offer and
the most at stake in building ethical, equitable, and expressive
AI. Findings show that a learning ecology that centers the
cultures and experiences of its learners while leveraging
accessible tech tools for critical analysis deepens young people?s
understanding of AI. In a study making use of the products of
the initiative, analysis showed that a critical framework for
solving socially relevant problems with AI increases student self-
efficacy for solving real-world problems and deepens student
understanding of the ethical considerations of AI.  

Opportunities for youth to produce interactive stories

interrogating AI functionalities expand the impact of that
learning by delivering it to the public for further engagement.
The model that has emerged from Understanding AI frames
computer science as an expressive medium for storytelling,
meaning-making, and social justice. Through ?Critical
Computational Expression,? young people combine the
investigation of key social issues, computational and data
science literacy, and creative expression to produce dynamic

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7/7/23, 11:16 AM NSF Award Search: Award # 1906895 - Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence
digital products (stories, apps, interactives) that inform and shift
national conversations about STEM and society. Findings are
being shared through two books published by MIT Press, journal
articles, book chapters, conference papers, and workshops for
youth and practitioners across the US. 

Last Modified: 10/26/2022

Modified by: Ellin O'leary

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

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