Youth-Authored Art-Science Exhibits to Broaden Participation in Climate Communication

• In Event: Renewing Informal Climate Change Education Through Place-Based Pedagogies

Abstract

In this participatory action research project, female-identifying and gender expansive high-school-aged youth from historically-marginalized communities worked collaboratively with undergraduate mentors, graduate students, and faculty across disciplines to generate Migratory Micro-Exhibits (MMEs) — dynamic bi-lingual (Spanish/English) exhibits contained within transportable trunks, carrying climate communication materials centered around humanity’s relationships with birds including: wearable bird costumes, art-science explorations of bird biology, and interactive components to engage audiences in creating effective climate communications. The goal of this project and the associated research is to increase a sense of belonging in STEM for diverse youth by positioning them as expert climate communicators in culturally significant spaces.

Research shows that engaging with scientific content in an informal STEM learning (ISL) context helps to foster a student’s ability to see themselves as a scientist (Kitchen et al., 2018; Mohr-Schroeder et al., 2014; Roberts et al., 2018). However, a lack of inclusion in ISL spaces can have a direct negative impact on diverse learners’ interest in and sense of self efficacy in STEM (Mulvey et al., 2022, Shea & Sadoval, 2020). Calabrese Barton et al. (2021) contend that many ISL spaces “still reflect White supremacist and patriarchal worldviews in discourse and practice” (p.1229). Calabrese and Tan (2020) and Birmingham et al. (2017) noting that when minoritized learners are involved in creating ISL materials that outlive them in learning spaces, the power dynamics and hierarchies of those spaces begin to shift.

While studies have examined the impact of ISL experiences that engage youth as creators on the creators themselves, little research has examined the impact youth-made ISL materials have on other youth. In this ongoing study, we examine how the creation and sharing of the MMEs has the potential to increase a sense of belonging in STEM for both the high school aged creators and younger audiences experiencing the MMEs. An initial pilot study utilizing pre/post assessment with three verified scales, (1) Student Science Identity Scale (SSIS, Chen & Wei, 2022), (2) the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS, Mayer & Frantz, 2004) and (3) the Climate Change Hope Scale (CCHS, Li & Monroe, 2018), demonstrated that participation in the program significantly increased youth science identity and connectedness to nature, and increased feelings of efficacy about environmental action for high school aged youth.

Expanding beyond the pilots, the ongoing study utilizes a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, defined as “a framework of belief systems that directly engages members of culturally diverse groups with a focus on increased social justice” (Mertens, 2010,p. 470), to further center youth as knowledge holders. We have completed one PAR cycle and over the next four years will continue to collaboratively work with youth participants and undergraduate mentors to shape research methods and analyze data centered on the question: How are diverse youth impacted by experiencing youth-created climate communication materials in important cultural spaces?

Authors

• Chelsea Hackett, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Beth Osnes, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Shawhin Roudbari, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Molly McDermott, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Sam Collier, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Sara R. García, University of Colorado - Boulder