Presentation slides and narration for the NARST 2022 Annual Conference. In this presentation we summarize findings from our interviewed with undergraduate STEM majors who identify as Latine, homing in on the ways in which they characterize "STEM" and "STEM people" and their descriptions of K-12 experiences that contributed to their characterizations of these concepts.
This project, an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot, managed by the University of Nevada, Reno, addresses the grand challenge of increasing underrepresentation regionally in the advanced manufacturing sector. Using the state's Learn and Earn Program Advanced Career Pathway (LEAP) as the foundation, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities will support and prepare Hispanic students for the region's workforce in advanced manufacturing which includes partnerships with Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC), the state's Governor's Office of Economic Development, Charles River Laboratories, Nevada Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (Nevada EPSCoR) and the K-12 community.
The expected outcomes from the project will inform the feasibility, expandability and transferability of the LEAP framework in diversifying the state's workforce locally and the STEM workforce nationally. Formative and summative evaluation will be conducted with a well-matched comparison group. Dissemination of project results will be disseminated through the Association for Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU), STEM conferences and scholarly journals.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David ShintaniJulie EllsworthKarsten HeiseRobert StachlewitzRegina Tempel
resourceresearchMuseum and Science Center Programs
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is one of the world's single largest employers of science communicators, with over 350,000 students and 40,000 staff. Its science communication activities include five museums (Universum, Museo de la Luz, the Geology Museum, Museo de la Medicina Mexicana and Musem of Geophysics), botanical gardens, as well as a wide range of cultural and outreach activities. It has several programmes for training professional science communicators. The science communication staff are spread across the campuses in Mexico City and four other cities, including
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ana Claudia NepoteElaine Reynoso-Haynes
A collaboration of TERC, MIT, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and community-based dance centers in Boston, this exploratory project seeks to address two main issues in informal science learning: 1) broadening participation in science by exploring how to expand science access to African-American and Latino youth and 2) augmenting science learning in informal contexts, specifically learning physics in community-based dance sites. Building on the growing field of "embodied learning," the project is an outgrowth in part of activities over the past decade at TERC and MIT that have investigated approaches to linking science, human movement and dance. Research in embodied learning investigates how the whole body, not just the brain, contributes to learning. Such research is exploring the potential impacts on learning in school settings and, in this case, in out of school environments. This project is comprised of two parts, the first being an exploration of how African-American and Latino high school students experience learning in the context of robust informal arts-based learning environments such as community dance studios. In the second phase, the collaborative team will then identify and pilot an intervention that includes principles for embodied learning of science, specifically in physics. This phase will begin with MIT undergraduate and graduate students developing the course before transitioning to the community dance studios. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
The goal of this pilot feasibility study is to build resources for science learning environments in which African-American and Latino students can develop identities as people who practice and are engaged in scientific inquiry. Youth will work with choreographers, physicists and educators to embody carefully selected physics topics. The guiding hypothesis is that authentic inquiries into scientific topics and methods through embodied learning approaches can provide rich opportunities for African-American and Latino high school-aged youth to learn key ideas in physics and to strengthen confidence in their ability to become scientists. A design- based research approach will be used, with data being derived from surveys, interviews, observational field notes, video documentation, a case study, and physical artifacts produced by participants. The study will provide the groundwork for producing a set of potential design principles for future projects relating to informal learning contexts, art and science education with African American and Latino youth.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Folashade Cromwell SolomonTracey WrightLawrence Pratt
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. 'Be a Scientist!' is a full-scale development project that examines the impact of a scalable, STEM afterschool program which trains engineers to develop and teach inquiry-based Family Science Workshops (FSWs) in underserved communities.
This CAREER grant interweaves research and teaching focused on understanding how social groups construct meaning during scientific conversations across different learning contexts, such as classrooms, museums and the home. This work will be translated into formal educational settings and used to inform teaching practices within pre-service University and in-service school district settings. The research and educational emphasis will be on creating conceptual links between social learning in diverse settings and the creation of corridors of opportunity between formal and informal learning institutions. To date there has been little research with families from cultural and linguistic minority populations, such as Latino families, at informal learning settings and virtually none that integrates formal and informal learning, or impacts teaching. The five-year project will: 1. Conduct Study 1, aimed at making fundamental cross-cultural comparisons of family conversational meaning making at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and linking this work with family interviews, reflective conversations and visits to family homes; 2. Review the theoretical framework and conduct Study 2, which will incorporate lessons learned from Study 1, and linking this research to formal classrooms; and 3. Use the findings (at each stage) to inform teaching practice with UCSC undergraduate (Science majors) and graduate (Science credential, MA and Ph.D.) students, and, in collaboration with teacher research groups for new and experienced teacher in schools that serve predominantly Latino students. This research plan provides an opportunity for viewing several inter-connected mechanisms, including family interactions and conversations, compelling science content, naturalistic learning in museum settings, and, finally, analyzing these factors in order to inform teaching practices that promote bilingual minority students to the rank of scientists.