This document is the final evaluation report for the project, which focuses both on formative evaluation of the collaborative+interdisciplinary presentation creation process and summative evaluation of audience learning outcomes.
Informal STEM learning experiences (ISLEs), such as participating in science, computing, and engineering clubs and camps, have been associated with the development of youth’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics interests and career aspirations. However, research on ISLEs predominantly focuses on institutional settings such as museums and science centers, which are often discursively inaccessible to youth who identify with minoritized demographic groups. Using latent class analysis, we identify five general profiles (i.e., classes) of childhood participation in ISLEs from data
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Remy DouHeidi CianZahra HazariPhilip SadlerGerhard Sonnert
The project team published a research synopsis article with Futurum Science Careers in Feb 2023 called “How Can Place Attachment Improve Scientific Literacy?”
The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research.
The Joseph Moore Museum at Earlham College will revise its interpreter training and educational programs to reflect current best practices in participatory STEM education. This project will include strengthening their programs to better prepare undergraduate educators, as well as updating the delivery of their top three requested programs to ensure learner-centered experiences. The project will include the development of a training program modeled on a combination of principles set out by the National Association of Interpretation and the Reflections on Practice program. Undergraduate educators will undergo systematic training in the fundamentals of educational theory and practice and benefit from a program of sustained evaluation and mentorship.
The Thinkery will develop research-based exhibit materials and community resources to support adults as learning facilitators for their children. The museum will formalize a decade-long research relationship with a nationally recognized expert in child development and learning to establish new infrastructure and capacity to translate best practices from learning sciences into museum operations. The museum will create a 180-foot learning hub that blends elements of an exhibition and research space, allowing the prototyping and evaluation of exhibits by engaging visitors as active participants in research studies. The project team will produce bilingual exhibit prompts cards, signage, and enhancements to educate and inform parents by offering STEAM knowledge, inquiry questions, play-based learning and child development information. Additional project activities will include the development and implementation of related staff trainings and the establishment of an online parent resource gallery.
In this chapter, I offer the National Black Male College Achievement Study (NBMCAS) as an example of how to explore and better understand the enablers of minority student achievement in STEM. Methods employed in the national study are described in the next section, followed by the presentation of an anti-deficit achievement framework for research on students of color at various junctures of the STEM pipeline, from K–12 schools through doctoral degree attainment and transitions into science research and long-term industry careers. Though informed by and conceptually similar to the framework
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.
Access & opportunity in STEM remain limited for youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds in the US & UK. We present findings grounded in Participatory Ethnographies into STEM pathways, highlighting how youth participate in ISL across time and settings in equitable and transformative ways, and practices that ISL practitioners engage in towards supporting pathway authoring. We take a pathways lens to highlight the multiple directions one may take through a particular ecology towards a wide range of outcomes beyond the STEM career, such as STEM agency and identities. Our study
This 4-year project addresses fundamental equity issues in informal Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning. Access to, and opportunities within informal STEM learning (ISL) remain limited for youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds in both the United States and the United Kingdom. However, there is evidence that ISL experiences can expand opportunities for youth learning and development in STEM, for instance, increase positive attitudes towards educational aspirations and future careers/pursuits, improve grades and test scores in school settings, and decrease disciplinary action and dropout rates. Through research and development, this project brings together researchers and practitioners to focus on the experiences, practices and tools that will support equitable youth pathways into STEM. Working across conceptual frameworks and ISL settings (e.g. science centers, community groups, zoos) and universities in four urban contexts in two different nations, the partnership will produce a coherent knowledge base that strengthens and expands research plus practice partnerships, builds capacity towards transformative research and development, and develops new models and tools in support of equitable pathways into STEM at a global level. This project is funded through Science Learning+, which is an international partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Wellcome Trust with the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The goal of this joint funding effort is to make transformational steps toward improving the knowledge base and practices of informal STEM experiences. Within NSF, Science Learning+ is part of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program that seeks to enhance learning in informal environments and to broaden access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences.
This Equity Pathways project responds to three challenges at the intersections of ISL research and practice in the United States and the United Kingdom: 1) lack of shared understanding of how youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds perceive and experience ISL opportunities across national contexts, and the practices and tools needed to support empowered movement through ISL; 2) limited shared understanding and evidence of core high-leverage practices that support such youth in progressing within and across ISL, and 3) limited understanding of how ISL might be equitable and transformative for such youth seeking to develop their own pathways into STEM. The major goal of this Partnership is for practitioners and researchers, working with youth through design-based implementation research, survey and critical ethnography, to develop new understandings of how and under what conditions they participate in ISL over time and across settings, and how they may connect these experiences towards pathways into STEM. The project will result in: 1) New understandings of ISL pathways that are equitable and transformative for youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds; 2) A set of high leverage practices and tools that support equitable and transformative informal science learning pathways (and the agency youth need to make their way through them); and 3) Strengthened and increased professional capacity to broaden participation among youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds in STEM through informal science learning. The project will be carried out by research + practice partnerships in 4 cities: London & Bristol, UK and Lansing, MI & Portland, OR, US, involving university researchers (University College London, Michigan State University, Oregon State University/Institute for Learning Innovation) practitioners in science museums (@Bristol Science Centre, Brent Lodge Park Animal Centre, Impressions 5, Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) and community-based centers (STEMettes, Knowle West Media Centre, Boys & Girls Clubs of Lansing, and Girls, Inc. of the Pacific Northwest).