Promoting Youth' STEM Interest and Global Mindedness through a Binational STEM Program

• In Event: Youth Essential Workforce Skills and Engagement in Climate Action Locally and Globally through Virtual Exchange Programs

Proposal

What is the impact of youth participating in a virtual team-based STEM/ICT program emphasizing technological innovation and global competence on STEM/ICT career interests, self-efficacy, interest, outcome expectancies, perceptions of contextual supports, and global competence?

To answer this question, we engaged teams of students in the United States and Ghana in the World Smarts STEM Challenge. Since 2016, the World Smarts program has supported science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for youth in the U.S. and Ghana and is currently funded by the National Science Foundation. During the program, students form binational teams and collaborate virtually to find STEM solutions and address local and global issues related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 13 (climate change). This project-based learning process not only helps students “take action” and develop innovative solutions to community problems but prepares them for a dynamic and changing workforce through virtual collaboration with peers across the globe.

To better understand how students' STEM interests, career and college plans and global competence change following participation in the World Smarts STEM Challenge and learn about the ways in which students engage in the program, IREX partnered with researchers at North Carolina State University and surveyed more than 350 youth across Ghana and the United States.

We learned from initial findings that these types of programs may be especially beneficial for girls, who are historically underrepresented in many STEM fields and often face exclusion from STEM domains. In 2022, 63% of participants that completed the survey identified as female and had a statistically significant increase in the measures (e.g., self-efficacy). Overall, the findings provide evidence that bi-cultural out-of-school STEM programs can increase adolescents’ STEM interest and efficacy as well key global skills that may be important for the STEM workplace and building global communities.

Additionally, the impact of youth participating in the World Smarts program emphasized the importance of critical thinking skills, problem-solving and empathy. In the case of students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Edinaman Senior High School, they identified an energy problem affecting the Elmina community, developed a solution, constructed a prototype and presented an earth battery to provide students in the local community a means to study at night during dumsor (power outages). Another team of students used the human design thinking process to develop PET bottle recycling system and address the high rates of plastic waste in both the Accra and Falls Church communities, further exemplifying students’ capacity to take action and how World Smarts is a catalyst for change in schools and broader communities.

In this presentation, we will examine the program framework developed from design thinking and positive youth development principles, as well as present the research findings that suggest benefits for students from underrepresented backgrounds. We will explore participant engagement in the virtual exchange program and unpack the realities for youth as they begin to unlearn and relearn concepts of STEM, future life and career possibilities, and taking action on climate issues in their communities.

Author

• Amaris Mohammed, International Research and Exchanges Board