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The Role of Resources in Supporting STEM Interest & Identity in an Afterschool Maker-based STEM Program

Wed, April 8, 1:45 to 3:15pm PDT (1:45 to 3:15pm PDT), Los Angeles Convention Center, Floor: Level Two, Room 515B

Abstract

The “maker movement” has spurred a new generation of students to engage in the world of science and engineering in a hands-on, informal setting (Hsu et al., 2023), and often serves as a powerful space for youth STEM identity development (Fasso & Knight, 2020). While the makerspace movement has increased access to STEM for many, it is important to specifically reach historically underrepresented groups, such as Latinx students, who face additional barriers to STEM careers and opportunities (Ambrogio et al., 2018; NRC, 2013). At California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, we implemented the Mobile Making program at two public elementary schools where 57% of participants were Latinx. In this presentation, we examine how 37 third through sixth-grade students’ interest and identity in STEM changed through participation in the afterschool program, and the role resources played in fostering these changes.
A design-based research (DBR) approach was used to collect and analyze data. DBR supports dual goals of informing our program design and practices while producing models that apply broadly to researchers and practitioners (Barab & Squire, 2009; DBR Collective, 2003). Using this approach, we analyzed a retroactive post-survey (Hamidi & Moulton, 2020) with questions that gauged students’ interest in STEM and belief in their own STEM abilities after participation in six maker sessions. In addition, we performed structural coding (Saldaña, 2021) on eight focus group interviews with students, guided by Nasir and Cooks’ (2009) identity resource model. First-round coding included these categories according to resource type: material (physical parts of the setting), relational (connections to other people), and ideational (ideas about participation, values, norms, and place in the world). Codes were triangulated with surveys and program artifacts to verify across sources and understand how resources fostered students’ interest and identity in STEM.
Initial findings indicate that over 60% of students’ interest and belief in STEM abilities increased and that all three resource types supported this outcome. Students accessed material resources such as batteries, glue guns, and vinegar, and associated these everyday materials with STEM practices such as experimentation. In an interview, one student stated vinegar “made me feel more like a person who does STEM… because lots of people that do STEM, they use vinegar for…experiments.” Relational resources also played a major role in students’ feeling of success, as they received support from mentors and were positioned as leaders by fellow students. One student reflected, “There’s other people asking me questions, and I felt successful, because… they asked me a lot of stuff.” This aligns with previous findings stating the importance of recognition and positioning in shifting identities (Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Pattison et al., 2020). Lastly, students accessed ideational resources and identified important skills such as patience, creativity, and perseverance that guided their emergent STEM identity. Students recognized the iterative nature of STEM, and that failure was a natural part of the process. Our poster will elaborate on these findings and provide recommendations for educators supporting emergent STEM identities in underrepresented youth.

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