SYNTHESIS: A quantitative meta-analysis and qualitative synthesis on the impacts of informal STEM and ICT programs on cognitive and social-emotional outcomes of youth participants

Poster

This project is a synthesis study to investigate the effectiveness of informal STEM and ICT programs to maximize impact and broaden participation of youth participants in STEM pathways. We focus on two research questions: (1) How and to what extent do informal, out-of-school time (OST) STEM and ICT learning experiences impact K-12 participants’ awareness, interest, and engagement in STEM majors and STEM careers?

Read More

Engaging Young Black and Latino Students in Data Science Through Water Security

Poster

Communities of color across the nation face increasing challenges with affordable access to safe drinking water. Using data science to explore why, where and how this is happening, and what is being done about it, provides a powerful vehicle for the engagement of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and to help develop a digital work force with appropriate representation from the affected communities.

Read More

CS Frontiers: Beyond CS Principles: Engaging Female High School Students in New Frontiers of Computing

Poster

Building on the foundations set by the AP Computer Science (CS) Principles course, this project seeks to dramatically expand access, especially for high school girls, to the most exciting and emerging frontiers of computing, such as distributed computation, the internet of things (IoT), cybersecurity, and machine learning, as well as other 21st century skills required to productively leverage computational methods and tools in virtually every profession.

Read More

Bridging Communities with Student STEM Stories: Culturally-Responsive Strategies for Motivating STEM Engagement in Diversifying Public Schools

Poster

This poster describes our NSF ITEST Project on culturally responsive STEM education and the power of students' stories about STEM in their homes and communities to not only engage students more deeply in their STEM learning, but also to help students, eductors and parents expand their understandings of where STEM can be found in the world and valued knowledge that exists in all communities.  

Read More

Peering a Generation into the Future: NSF's Young Scholars Program (YSP) and the nation’s STEM workforce

Poster

This project is a multiyear study of the impact of an enrichment program that the US National Science Foundation (NSF) managed in the 1990s. The Young Scholars Program (YSP) involved around 18,000 7th–12th grade students and 600 separate grants between 1989 and 1996. The purpose of YSP was to introduce high-achieving middle and secondary school students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to encourage their entry into those fields and thus increase the size and quality of the nation’s STEM workforce.

Read More