Abstract: We aim to disrupt the multigenerational cycle of poverty in our rural indigenous (18% Native American and 82% Hispanic) community by training our successful college students to serve as role models in our schools. Poverty has led to low educational aspirations and expectations that plague our entire community. As such, its disruption requires a collective effort from our entire community. Our Collective unites two local public colleges, 3 school systems, 2 libraries, 1 museum, 1 national laboratory and four local organizations devoted to youth development. Together we will focus on raising aspirations and expectations in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) topics, for STEM deficiencies among 9th graders place them at risk of dropping out while STEM deficiencies among 11th and 12th graders preclude them from pursuing STEM majors in college and therefore from pursuing well paid STEM careers. We will accomplish this by training, placing, supporting, and assessing the impact of, an indigenous STEM mentor corps of successful undergraduate role models. By changing STEM aspirations and expectations while heightening their own sense of self-efficacy, we expect this corps to replenish itself and so permanently increase the flow of the state's indigenous populations into STEM majors and careers in line with NSF's mission to promote the progress of science while advancing the national health, prosperity and welfare.
Our broader goal is to focus the talents and energies of a diverse collective of community stakeholders on the empowerment of its local college population to address and solve a STEM disparity that bears directly on the community's well-being in a fashion that is generalizable to other marginalized communities. The scope of our project is defined by six tightly coupled new programs: three bringing indigenous STEM mentors to students, one training mentors, one training mentees to value and grow their network of mentors, and one training teachers to partner with us in STEM. The intellectual merit of our project lies not only in its assertion that authentic STEM mentors will exert an outsize influence in their communities while increasing their own sense of self-efficacy, but in the creation and careful application of instruments that assess the factors that determine teens' attitudes, career interests, and behaviors toward a STEM future; and mentors' sense of self development and progress through STEM programs. More precisely, evaluation of the programs has the potential to clarify two important questions about the role of college-age mentors in schools: (1) To what degree is the protege's academic performance and perceived scholastic competence mediated by the mentor's impact on (a) the quality of the protege's parental relationship and (b) the social capital of the allied classroom teacher; (2) To what degree does the quality of the student mentor's relationships with faculty and peers mediate the impact of her serving as mentor on her self-efficacy, academic performance, and leadership skills?
The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) and the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) will conduct a fifteen-month project designed to increase resources, inspire innovation, and build national awareness of public libraries as leaders in summer learning. ULC and NSLA will increase knowledge of emerging models; deepen connections between library, summer learning, and school leaders; and help build national visibility with local government, school, and library leaders of the role and value of public libraries in summer learning. Project activities include: a national scan of research-based practices, including a survey, site visits, interviews, and a focus group; identification of emerging models that incorporate library-school partnerships as well as science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) learning, connected learning, and family learning; development of an online resource guide; and the building of a library-based peer learning network.
The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) will partner with the New Hampshire Department of Education, the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and others to engage in-service and pre-service school librarians and teachers in multiple settings in the use of curated open educational resources (OER) for Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teaching and learning. The project will include annual spring professional learning academies; semi-annual professional development symposia; and virtual support. Project outcomes include the development of new teaching and social learning practices; the creation and sharing of high quality standards-aligned instructional units and text sets focused on STEM inquiry; higher education courseware modules; and a replicable and scalable community of practice and professional learning network.
The Expanding Children’s Interest through Experiential Learning (EXCITE) Project will target K-8th students in expanded learning programs to increase ongoing NASA STEM informal education opportunities for organizations that serve primarily underrepresented and underserved student populations. The AERO Institute will leverage existing collaborations to build capacity of participating organizations in NASA inspired STEM activities. Major partners include Navajo Nation in Arizona, the Beyond the Bell branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Region 8 of the California After School Program housed in the Ventura County of Education. In addition, the EXCITE Learning Project plans to work with libraries to broaden the scope and impact of NASA’s Education materials and opportunities within underrepresented and underserved local communities. AERO Education specialists will train educators and librarians using the Train-the-Trainer approach. The training sessions will be filmed and made available online via the AERO website and its network on YouTube so that educators and librarians can refresh their understanding as needed.
This white paper is the product of the CAISE Formal-Informal Partnerships Inquiry Group, which began work during a July 2008 ISE Summit organized by CAISE. Their examination of what the authors call "the hybrid nature of formal-informal collaborations" draws on relevant theoretical perspectives and a series of case studies to highlight ways in which the affordances of formal and informal settings can be combined and leveraged to create rich, compelling, authentic, and engaging science that can be systematically developed over time and settings.
WGBH is conducting preliminary work on an untested and novel idea for a new multimedia project, EGames. The target audience for the project is children ages 9-12. The project envisions a 13-part television series which combines the appeal of a game show with the drama of real-world challenges to engender enthusiasm and promote understanding of engineering in kids nationwide. The television programs will be complemented with materials and training for engineers to mount EGames events in public venues and run workshops in schools, afterschool programs and libraries, and an extensive companion website. During the research phase, WGBH will convene a Content Advisory Board which would include professional engineers, curriculum developers, classroom teachers, professors of engineering and informal educators, and a Funding Advisory Board. They will also write the series curriculum, design the game, develop outreach, Web, and evaluation plans, and develop and test a sample engineering challenge with a group of contestants to work out logistic and production questions. This will inform the next stage of project development. Note: This project led to the series "FETCH! With Ruff Ruffman."