The State University of New York (SUNY) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) are collaborating to implement the SUNY/NYAS STEM Mentoring Program, a full scale development project designed to improve the science and math literacy of middle school youth. Building upon lessons learned through the implementation of national initiatives such as NSF's Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program, university initiatives such as the UTeach model, and locally-run programs, this project's goals are to: 1) increase access to high quality, hands-on STEM programs in informal environments, 2) improve teaching and outreach skills of scientists in training (graduate and postdoctoral fellows), and 3) test hypotheses around scalable program elements. Together, SUNY and NYAS propose to carry out a comprehensive, systemic science education initiative to recruit graduate students and postdoctoral fellows studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at colleges and universities statewide to serve as mentors in afterschool programs. SUNY campuses will partner with a community-based organization (CBO) to place mentors in afterschool programs serving middle school students in high-need, low-resource urban and rural communities. Project deliverables include a three-credit online graduate course for mentor training, six pilot sites, a best practices guide, and a model for national dissemination. The online course will prepare graduate and postdoctoral fellows to spend 12-15 weeks in afterschool programs, introducing students to life science, earth science, mathematics and engineering using curriculum modules that are aligned with the New York State standards. The project design includes three pre-selected sites (College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering at the University of Albany, SUNY Institute of Technology, and SUNY Downstate Medical Center) and three future sites to be selected through a competitive process, each of which will be paired with a CBO to create a locally designed STEM mentoring program. As a result, a minimum of 192 mentors will provide informal STEM education to 2,880 middle school students throughout New York State. The comprehensive, mixed-methods evaluation will address the following questions: 1) Does student participation in an afterschool model of informal education lead to an increase in STEM content knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and interest in pursuing further STEM education and career pathways? 2) Do young scientists who participate in the program develop effective teaching and mentoring skills, and develop interest in teaching or mentoring career options that result in STEM retention? 3) What are the attributes of an effective STEM afterschool program and the elements of local adaptation and innovation that are necessary to achieve a successful scale-up to geographically diverse locations? 4) What is the role of the afterschool model in delivering informal STEM education? This innovative model includes a commitment to scale across the 64 SUNY campuses and 122 Councils of the Girl Scouts of the USA, use an online platform to deliver training, and place scientists-in-training in informal learning environments. It is hypothesized that as a result of greater access to STEM education in an informal setting, participating middle school youth will develop increased levels of STEM content knowledge, self-efficacy, confidence in STEM learning, and interest in STEM careers. Scientist mentors will: 1) gain an understanding of the context and characteristics of informal science education, 2) develop skills in mentoring and interpersonal communication, 3) learn and apply best practices of inquiry instruction, and 4) potentially develop interest in teaching as a viable career option. It is anticipated that the project will add to the research literature in several areas such as the effectiveness of incentives for graduate students; the design of mentor support systems; and the structure of pilot site programs in local communities. Findings and materials from this project will be disseminated through presentations at local, regional, and national conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals focused on informal science education, and briefings sent to more than 25,000 NYAS members around the world.
The University of Texas at El Paso will conduct a research project that implements and documents the impact of co-generative dialogues on youth learning and youth-scientist interactions as part of a STEM research program (i.e., Work with A Scientist Program). Co-generative dialogues seek to specifically assist with communication and understanding among collaborators. Over four years, 108 11th grade youth from a predominantly (90%) Hispanic high school will conduct STEM research with twelve scientists/engineers (e.g., chemist, civil engineer, geologist, biologist) and undergraduate/graduate students as part of 7 month-long after school program, including bi-weekly Saturday activities for 5 months followed by an intensive month-long, self-directed research project in the summer. Youth will be randomly assigned to experimental groups that include the co-generative dialogue treatment and control groups without the intervention. The scientists and their STEM undergraduate/graduate students will participate in both experimental and control groups, with different youth. Youth will receive high school credit to encourage participation and retention. The PI team hypothesizes that co-generative dialogues will result in improved learning, communication, and research experiences for both youth and scientists. Educational researchers will conduct co-generative dialogues, observations, interviews, and surveys using validated instruments to address the following research goals: (1) To investigate the impact of the treatment (co-generative dialogues) on youth knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of their experience, and their relationships with the scientists; (2) To investigate the impact of the treatment on scientists and graduate students; and (3) To identify critical components of the treatment that affect youth-scientist interactions. It is anticipated that, in addition to providing in-depth STEM research experiences for 108 youth from underrepresented groups at a critical time in their lives, the project will result in widely applicable understandings of how pedagogical approaches affect both youth learning and scientist experiences. The project also seeks to bridge learning environments: informal, formal, university and digital.
Xraise provides experiences that empower individuals by making science familiar and accessible. Immersed with scientists themselves, we facilitate hands-on, minds-on activities that involve the direct exploration of physics phenomena. Our relationship with K12 students, educators and community partners provides us with a platform for exploring personal intuitions, developing understandings and fostering excitement in science.