Science fairs offer potential opportunities for students to learn first-hand about the practices of science. Over the past six years we have been carrying out voluntary and anonymous surveys with regional and national groups of high school and post high school students to learn about their high school science fair experiences regarding help received, obstacles encountered, and opinions about the value and impact of science fair. Understanding what students think about science fairs will help educators make science fairs more effective learning opportunities. In this paper, we focus on the
This paper is the culmination of several meaning-making activities between an external researcher, PES practitioners, and social scientist researchers who considered the unique contributions that can be made through RPPs on PES (that is, research-practice partnerships on public engagement with science). Based on the experiences from three RPP projects, the group noted that the PES context may be particularly suited to RPPs, and identified the importance of working as thinking-partners who support reciprocal decision-making. Recommendations are made in support of using these approaches to
STEMroller events disrupt stereotypes surrounding STEM professionals within a neglected space in science communication; a sports hall. Roller derby inspired STEMroller, both the do-it-yourself culture and creating a space for women and genderqueer people to be themselves. Over 100 female and non-binary STEM professionals volunteered to put this event together for students aged 11–19. STEMroller includes networking with people from over 30 science, technology engineering and mathematics industries, watching roller derby and trying it out — albeit in socks not on wheels. STEMroller uses a pool
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. In this project, Science Cafe's have emerged over the years as a useful mechanism for exposure of scientific information to the public. More recently, this forum has been successfully used as a communication mechanism for teens. While this mechanism is successful with urban and suburban youth, it has not been efficacious with rural teens. Thus, this project is designed to ferret out the challenges faced by Teen Science Cafe's(TSCs) in rural settings and find ways to surmount them. The long-term goal is to engage a large number of teens who will enter adulthood as citizens with a sophisticated understanding of the science process and who will follow a myriad of pathways into the U.S. STEM workforce. The research will focus on what works, for whom, and where with respect to the key components and outcomes of teen science cafe's in rural areas.
At the broadest level, the project will strengthen infrastructure and build capacity by producing a national model for bringing OST (out of school time) STEM to rural communities. Over the two project years, approximately 600 unique participants will participate in teen science cafe's that engage their curiosity in STEM, provide leadership opportunities, and make STEM occupations more visible, participatory and approachable for rural teems who often lack access to high quality STEM programs in school.
Specific goals of the project for rural settings are: (1) To test the feasibility and effectiveness of a national model of professional development centered on an in-person and virtual community of practice for informal STEM educators leading teen science cafe's. (2) Form research-practice partnerships involving the PIs and the leaders of cafe's to: i) identify and document existing local conditions, resources, and challenges and their significance for OST STEM education; ii) work collaboratively with peers and the PIs to systematically test new strategies for engaging rural teens in TSCs; (3) Cultivate a mindset among teens that STEM IS EVERYWHERE. Rural teens are often isolated and the STEM careers in their communities are largely invisible to them. To date, 19 geographically and demographically diverse active teen cafe's sites have committed to the project. The PIs will use a multifaceted approach to characterizing rurality, They will use the established Index of Relative Rurality (IRR) which includes four spatial variables (remoteness, overall population size, density, and proportion of built-up land). The impact of the Cafe's series at each site will be determined via multiple methods, including: (1) pre-post-surveys with teens, employing the measure of STEM attitudes and engagement; (2) detailed blog postings by adult leaders describing the challenges/successes of teen and (3) interviews with leaders to uncover their perceptions of the reasons associated with success of the strategy.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.