Utah Valley University (UVU) with partners Weber State University (WSU) and American Indian Services (AIS) are implementing UTAH PREP (PREParation for STEM Careers) to address the need for early preparation in mathematics to strengthen and invigorate the secondary-to-postsecondary-to-career STEM pipeline. As the preliminary groundwork for UTAH PREP, each partner currently hosts a PREP program (UVU PREP, WSU PREP, and AIS PREP) that identifies low-income, under-represented minority, first-generation, and female students entering seventh grade who have interest and aptitude in math and science, and involves them in a seven-week, three-year summer intensive program integrating STEM courses and activities. The course content blends skill-building academics with engaging experiences that promote a clear understanding of how mathematical concepts and procedures are applied in various fields of science and engineering. Courses are enhanced through special projects, field trips, college campus visits, and the annual Sci-Tech EXPO. The purpose of the program is to motivate and prepare participants from diverse backgrounds to complete a rigorous program of mathematics in high school so that they can successfully pursue STEM studies and careers, which are vital to advancing the regional and national welfare.
UTAH PREP is based on the TexPREP program that originated at the University of Texas at San Antonio and which was named as one of the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in 2015. TexPREP was adapted by UVU for use in Utah for non-minority serving institutions and in regions with lower minority populations, but with great academic and college participation disparity. With NSF funding for a two-year pilot program, the project partners are building UTAH PREP through a networked improvement community, collective impact approach that, if demonstrably successful, has the ability to scale to a national level. This pilot program's objectives include: 1) creating a UTAH PREP collaboration with commitments to a common set of objectives and common set of plans to achieve them; 2) strengthening existing PREP programs and initiating UTAH PREP at two or three other institutions of higher education in Utah, each building a sustainable local support network; 3) developing a shared measurement system to assess the impact of UTAH PREP programs, adaptations, and mutually reinforcing activities on students, including those from groups that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines; and 4) initiating a backbone organization that will support future scaling of the program's impact.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Daniel HornsAndrew StoneVioleta Vasilevska
The Exhibit Designs for Girls’ Engagement (EDGE) project is a three-year Exploratorium-run, NSF-funded, research study aiming to identify the most important design attributes for engaging girls at STEM exhibits. We identified nearly 100 exhibit design attributes that had the potential for better engaging girls. To test those 100 attributes and their relationship to girls’ engagement, we studied more than 300 physics, engineering, math, and perception exhibits at the Exploratorium, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Arizona Science Center. The purpose of the EDGE research was to winnow
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. The project's research goal is to identify the most important exhibit design attributes for engaging girls at STEM exhibits.
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. Designing Our World (DOW) empowers and promotes girls’ pursuit of engineering careers by cultivating networks of community stakeholders and engaging girls with experiences that illuminate the social, personally relevant and altruistic nature of engineering.
This special report describes NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science), a comprehensive initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering discovery and innovation by proactively seeking and effectively developing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent from all sectors and groups in our society. By facilitating partnerships, communication and cooperation, NSF aims to build on and scale up what works in broadening participation programs to reach underserved populations
These slides were presented at the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Principal Investigators' Meeting held in Bethesda, MD from February 29-March 2, 2016. The presentation describes NSF INCLUDES, a funding opportunity that leverages collective impact strategies to broaden participation in STEM.
In support of a summative evaluation of SciGirls Season Three, Multimedia Research developed a scale to assess preteen girls’ interest in nature and science. The work was sponsored by Twin Cities PBS under NSF Grant No. 1323713. Multimedia Research developed, piloted, validated and implemented the GINSS: A nine statement Likert scale constructed to reveal girls’ strength of interest in nature and science activities. Researchers and evaluators are encouraged to use this scale to extend its application. Please email if you eventually use the scale in your research or evaluation: Flagg
This CRPA project is about research on climate change impacts in the Amazonian rain forest and about motivating youth to consider science as a career objective. The project is an exhibit in Biosphere 2 in Arizona wherein a rain forest is maintained and will be used to augment the exhibit of large photos of scientists doing research. Particular attention will be paid to female scientists to motivate young girls. Biosphere 2 and the Girl Scout Council of Southern Arizona will collaborate to attract girls through free admission days to Biosphere 2. These large photos will be equipped with sound and video so that as a visitor approaches the photo, the sounds of the forest as well as the researcher(s) will be heard. At this point the researcher, in the photograph, will begin a monologue with the visitor explaining what scientists are investigating and who the other workers are. In this monologue, the researcher will explain what they are doing specifically, why they are investigating this subject, and what they plan to derive as a scientific result. The exhibit will consist of fifty very large photographs (3x5 feet) with sound access via smart phones and headsets. In addition, there will be hands on equipment and docents for questions and discussion. The venue receives about 100,000 visitors per year consisting mainly of families, tourists, and clubs. Through this exhibit, the researchers intend to motivate youth to develop interests in STEM topics. Girls are the main target audience. For families and tourists, the exhibit communicates the message of how science is being used to determine the effect of climate change on rain forests and how that would affect other aspects of weather and the global environment.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Scott SaleskaBruce JohnsonJoost van HarenJennifer Fields
For over 200 years, American women have contributed to paleontology and our understanding of the history of life. These contributions have never received the wide recognition of those made by men. Women's paleontological work was frequently unpublished or published without adequate acknowledgment. Tracing the contributions and experiences of women in paleontology, from a long-term historical perspective, will provide fascinating insights and an inspiring perspective on women in science seldom presented to the public. The Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) is uniquely positioned to share these untold stories in the form of a new traveling exhibition with associated programming, website, and book. In this planning project PRI will work with interpretive planners, evaluation consultants, historians, scientists, and museum educators to interview intended audiences, develop content, research artifacts and specimens, plan public programs, and begin preliminary exhibition design.
The Designing Our World (DOW) project centers on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) equity and addresses the need for more youth, especially girls, to pursue engineering and fill vital workforce gaps. DOW will integrate tested informal science education (ISE) programs and exhibits with current knowledge of engaging diverse youth through activities embedded in a social context. Led by teams of diverse community stakeholders and in partnership with several local girl-serving organizations, DOW will leverage existing exhibits, girls’ groups, and social media to impact girls’
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Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryAnne Sinkey
This paper explores how science-aspiring girls balance their aspirations and achievement with societal expectations of femininity. In-depth interviews revealed two models that the girls tended to follow, termed feminine scientist or bluestocking scientist, and the precarious nature of both of these identities. Archer et al. suggest ways that practitioners can better support girls in their balancing acts.
The Exhibit Designs for Girls' Engagement (EDGE) PI poster provides the background for the research, the research questions, the steps we are taking to answer those questions, our audience and deliverables, and the challenges we've faced in the first year.
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ExploratoriumToni DancstepVeronica Garcia-Luis