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Synergies: Customizing Interventions to Sustain Youth STEM Interest and Participation Pathways

Sat, April 29, 10:35am to 12:05pm, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 221 C

Abstract

SYNERGIES: Customizing Interventions to Sustain Youth STEM Interest and Participation Pathways, a participatory research and design effort in a diverse, under-resourced urban community in Portland, focuses on understanding how STEM interest develops and how STEM educators broadly writ (in school and outside) can work collaboratively to support interest development and maintenance. This 5-year National Science Foundation (NSF)-Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL) project builds on a longitudinal research study (funded by the Noyce Foundation), which investigated the nature of the STEM-related interests of 10-/14-year-old youth in the community and the factors that influence these interests. We collected data documenting youth pathways in/through/with STEM utilizing a STEM interest and participation questionnaire; n=250, and in-depth interviews/activities in youths’ homes; n=20 case studies.

We found that interest in three emergent STEM dimensions—earth/space science, life science and technology/engineering—increased significantly for youth between the ages of 10/11 and 11/12 years. In contrast though, there was a decrease in participation rates in a variety of STEM activities for the same individuals over the same time frame. We found no correlations between STEM interest and teacher or leader variables. We also found strong positive correlations between all four STEM dimensions and interest-related variables including STEM knowledge, science relevance and science enjoyment (Hidi & Renniger, 2006). While most previous research focused on such average patterns of declining attitude or interest over time, SYNERGIES case study data suggested there were potentially underlying interest patterns that were being masked by these average patterns. A secondary cluster analysis confirmed this; three heterogeneous STEM interest profiles largely independent of demographics (e.g. gender, ethnicity) emerged within our cohort of youth: 1) a cluster of youth who are Interested in all STEM: STEM interest was relatively high and remained the same for earth/space science, life science and mathematics and increased for technology/ engineering; 2) a cluster of youth who are Disinterested in Math: interest in earth/space science, life science, and technology/engineering remained the same and was relatively high while math interest was low, and 3) a cluster of youth who are Disinterested in STEM: interest in all STEM areas declined significantly. We also found that youth in these groups differed significantly in a number of science interest-related factors such as participation in out-of-school STEM activities and parental support for STEM learning.
We are in Year 1 of this NSF-AISL Research in Service to Practice grant, utilizing these data, to collaborate with educational partners in the community (educators, in schools, and also in libraries, afterschool settings and museums; youth and their families; community leaders; etc.) to develop customized, connected and coordinated learning interventions. We are testing and refining approaches that empower the community to envision and create a more effective and synergistic community-wide STEM education system that recognizes the rich STEM learning opportunities that already exist in most communities, but are either hidden or under-utilized, particularly in communities of color and poverty. One approach includes intensive design workshops in which school and out-of-school educators work together to plan customized, connected and coordinated learning experiences.

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