Working with Diverse Populations

Working with Diverse Populations

This month, we highlight resources that offer guidance in recruiting and retaining diverse participants in STEM programming. 

Three webinars -- Strategies for Increasing Diversity in STEM Learning Environments (2014), Research and Strategies for Engaging African American and Latino Families in Informal STEM Education (2012), and Engaging Diverse Learners in STEM Education (2008) -- highlight specific strategies, successes, and challenges related to engaging and retaining diverse learners and their families in STEM programming. 

Best practice guides are included. Encouraging Girls in Math and Science (2007) provides a practice guide for STEM programming with girls in mind.   Inclusion, Disabilities, and Informal Science Learning (2010) offers a theoretical framework for thinking about inclusion of people with disabilities in informal science education (ISE), then reviews current practice in museums (broadly defined), in media and technology, and in youth and community programs.  More generally, Planting the Seeds for a Diverse U.S. STEM Pipeline: A Compendium of Best Practice K-12 STEM Education Programs (2010) spotlights 38 STEM education programs and their practices that have worked well in recent years.

Three ITEST briefs are also spotlighted.  ITEST Participants - Reaching Underserved and Underrepresented Groups (2012) explores the extent to which ITEST projects reach underrepresented populations.  In the Recruiting and Retaining Diverse Participants through Community Partnerships and Other Strategies (2006), Principal Investigators from three youth-based ITEST projects discuss how community partnerships strengthen their efforts to recruit and retain diverse participants.  The Equity in On-line Professional Development (2004) brief addresses the needs of different populations and how we can rovide equitable outcomes, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and class.

 

Resources