Poster #68 - High-Leverage Practices in Informal Science Education Toward Equitable and Transformative Pathways in STEM

• In Event: 79.052 - MTCC Poster Session 19
  In Poster Session: 79.052-8 - Informal Learning Environments Research Poster Session

Abstract

While equity in science education has been increasingly emphasized, how informal science practitioners recognize and enact equitable and transformative high leverage practices (HLPs) has not been investigated. This study explores moments in practice identified by practitioners as equitable and transformative in Informal Science Learning (ISL) spaces for youth, with a particular emphasis on youth-authored pathways through ISL. In this paper, we describe patterns in key moments and identify the HLPs associated with those moments. In so doing we describe what makes these moments equitable, in terms of access, opportunity, and outcomes. We also describe how the cultural norms and practices historicized in the science center promote or conflict with practitioners’ strengthening the equitable and consequential HLPs.

Authors

• Won Jung Kim, Michigan State University

• Angela Calabrese Barton, University of Michigan

• Micaela Balzer, Impression 5 science museum

• Sinead C Brien, Michigan State University