This article focuses on three approaches to STEM in out-of-school time that would be instructive for any organization seeking to develop STEM opportunities for teen girls. While Techbridge and Queens Community House focused on reaching populations most underrepresented in STEM—girls of color and those from immigrant and low-income families—the strategies they used could be applied to any population of adolescent girls.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Harriet MosatcheSusan Matloff-NievesLinda KekelisElizabeth Lawner
This presentation given at the 2013 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting examines evidence for the effectiveness of STEM education programs at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Currently, there are policy debates regarding the efficacy and legality of single sex formal and informal education programs. This issue is particularly poignant in science education due to the historical marginalization of women in these fields. This marginalization has resulted in women being positioned as a stigmatized group within many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields. Research points to adolescence as the age where this sense of marginalization begins to develop. As a result, policy responses have utilized various frameworks such as: increased access
This research project led by the Exploratorium will use a combination of tracking and timing, cluster analysis, and focus groups to seek to answer the research question: To what extent and in what ways do female-responsive designs more effectively engage girls at STEM exhibits? This project addresses the need for more research in this area by pioneering the study of potential female-responsive design (FRD) principles for exhibits across a wide variety of STEM topics and exhibit types. This project includes four phases that will build from the work of the PI that developed an initial Female-Responsive Design (FRD) Framework regarding female engagement and learning in STEM -- based on extensive literature review and practitioner interviews. This project will expand on and validate this FRD Framework, with the ultimate goal of having a set of criteria for female-responsive designs (FRD) that effectively engage girls at STEM exhibits. The four phases of the research project are: Phase 1: Track 1000 boys and girls across three institutions using over 300 physics, engineering, and math exhibits to identify which exhibits engage boys and girls equally, and which are less engaging for girls. Phase 2: A panel of experts and girl advisors identify additional female-responsive design principles, expanding on those identified to date in literature and practice. Phase 3: Combining results from the first two phases, the third phase employs statistical analyses to reveal the most effective combinations of design principles for engaging girls across a variety of exhibits. Phase 4: This qualitative phase conducts focus groups with girls to explore how the final FRD Framework works to better engage them, and how their learning differs at exhibits that exemplify the principles in the Framework.
The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) seeks to maximize access to shared resources within projects and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Funded primarily by the National Science Foundation, the NGCP is a robust national network of more than 3,000 girl-serving STEM organizations. Currently, 31 Collaboratives, serving 40 states, facilitate collaboration between more than 12,800 organizations who serve more than 7.7 million girls and 4.4 million boys. The NGCP occupies a unique role in the STEM community because it facilitates collaboration with all stakeholders who benefit from increasing diversity and engagement of women in STEM. These stakeholders form Regional Collaboratives, who are connected to local girl-serving STEM programs. Regional Collaboratives are led by leadership teams and advisory boards with representatives from K-12 education, higher education, community-based organizations, professional organizations, and industry. NGCP strengthens the capacity of girl-serving STEM projects by facilitating collaboration among programs and organizations and by sharing promising practice research, program models, and products through webinars, collaboration training, and institutes. This is accomplished through a tested comprehensive program of change that uses collaboration to expand and strengthen STEM-related opportunities for girls and women. In each replication state, the NGCP model creates a network of professionals, researchers, and practitioners, facilitating collaboration within this network, and delivering high-quality research-based professional development. Participating programs can also receive mini-grant funding to develop collaborative STEM-focused projects. To date, over 27,000 participants have been served in 241 mini-grant projects, and over 17,000 practitioners have been served through in-person events and webinars. The NGCP’s collaborative model changes the way practitioners and educators work to advance girls’ participation in STEM. It facilitates the development of practitioners in their knowledge of good gender equitable educational practices, awareness of the role of K-12 education in STEM workforce development, and mutual support of peers locally and across the United States.
The Girls RISEnet project convened an international community to explore the role of science centers in issues of gender equity in STEM learning. This effort resulted in two major products, including this international literature review that synthesizes what is known about how science centers and museums contribute to girls' engagement with STEM, summarizes what is useful for practice, and identifies gaps in the research. In addition, an international survey identified common global themes and issues and began to outline opportunities for science centers and museums to advance gender equity.
This report is the result of a project to investigate through a sociocultural lens whether girls-only, informal STEM experiences have potential long-term influences on young women's lives, both in terms of STEM but also more generally. The authors documented young women's perceptions of their program experiences and the ways in which they influenced their future choices in education, careers, leisure pursuits, and ways of thinking about what science is and who does it. This report includes the questionnaire used in the study.
The Learning and Youth Research and Evaluation Center (LYREC) is a collaboration of the Exploratorium, Harvard University, Kings College London, SRI International and UC Santa Cruz. LYREC provides technical assistance to NSF AYS projects, collects and synthesizes their impact data, and oversees dissemination of progress and results. This center builds on the Center for Informal Learning in Schools (CILS) that has developed a theoretical approach that takes into account the particular strengths and affordances of both Out of School Teaching (OST) and school environments. This foundation will permit strengthening the potential of the NSF AYS projects to develop strong local models that can generate valid and reliable data that can guide future investment, design and research aimed at creating coherence across OST and school settings. The overarching questions for the work are: 1. How can OST programs support K-8 engagement and learning in science, and in particular how can they contribute to student engagement with K-8 school science and beyond? 2. What is the range of science learning outcomes OST programs can promote, particularly when in collaboration with schools, IHE's, businesses, and other community partners? 3. How can classroom teachers and schools build on children's OST experiences to strengthen children's participation and achievement in K-12 school science Additionally, the data analysis will reveal: 1. How OST programs may be positioned to support, in particular, high-poverty, female and/or minority children traditionally excluded from STEM academic and career paths; and 2. The structural/organizational challenges and constraints that exist to complicate or confound efforts to provide OST experiences that support school science engagement, and conversely, the new possibilities which are created by collaboration across organizational fields. Data will be gathered from surveys, interviews, focus groups, evaluation reports, and classroom and school data.
TERC is partnering with the Toxics Action Center to enhance the capacity of environmental organizations to teach mathematical literacy skills to low-income citizens, mostly women of color. Secondary collaborators include four environmental organizations around the country. The project is (1) developing math- and statistics-rich educational materials that help non-scientists interpret environmental test results, (2) developing training materials that help environmental organization personnel provide quantitative literacy training to citizens, (3) helping environmental organizations institutionalize project resources, and (4) evaluating the impact of project activities on environmental organizers, community members, and the general public. Project deliverables include bilingual, print- and web-based instructional materials (including videos) for environmental organizations to use with staff and community members; training sessions to create a cadre of environmental organization leaders who can conduct environment-focused, math training workshops; a communications toolkit for dissemination to journalists who cover environmental issues; and a resource-rich project web site.
SciGirls TV Series, Website and Outreach is a transmedia project to encourage and empower girls to pursue careers in STEM. It is the first television series on PBS designed specifically for middle school girls, ages 8 - 12. The approach is based on gender research and best practices for STEM education for girls. Each episode features different real girls in active science investigations and engineering projects, while the series is unified by two appealing animated characters. The innovative format of the show forges a unique link to the Website, which is an integral part of the TV show itself. This request will support: * The production of ten new television episodes; * Enhancement of the SciGirls website on pbs.org; * Use of new technologies to create a SciGirls Smartphone app and interactive games; * Expansion of the SciGirls Museum Affiliates collaborative; a new SciGirls Mentorship Program with the AAUW and other professional organizations of scientists and engineers; and development of a new partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA. The project's strategic partners are the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) in Seattle and The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The NGCP links SciGirls with its network of 500 community-based science programs for girls, and The Franklin Institute helps coordinate the Museum Affiliates, a network of science museums that implements SciGirls outreach activities. The project will also work with the Girl Scouts of America's new "Girl Scout Leadership Experience" program which emphasizes STEM learning. The most significant web component is a social networking feature that allows girls who are interested in science to connect with peers across the nation. To date, there have been over 800,000 unique visitors and 50,000 registered "SciGirls." SciGirls TV is produced by Twin Cities Public Television and distributed by PBS Plus. Launched in February 2010, SciGirls Season One broadcasts reached over 86% of U.S. households. In addition, all programs are streamed on pbskids.org and available on iTunes free of charge. The Spanish version will be distributed on V-me. Two separate project evaluations will be conducted. Dr. Barbara Flagg will evaluate how SciGirls improves girls' knowledge and understanding of science and engineering and gives them greater confidence in their abilities in STEM. Valerie Knight-Williams will investigate the use of SciGirls outreach materials with a national network of after-school educators.