Negative attitudes about mathematics and the poor performance of U.S. adults and students on measures of mathematical reasoning are well-documented problems that limit many people’s identities and career aspirations. At the same time, the last decade has seen a proliferation of out-of-school environments that foster making and tinkering activities. Enthusiastic participants in these activities are often engaging in mathematical reasoning without realizing it—and thus do not consider themselves competent mathematical thinkers. Is there a way we can leverage the popularity of making and

Many barriers exist to K–12 classroom teachers’ adoption and implementation of geospatial technologies with their students. To address this circumstance, we have developed and implemented a geospatial curriculum approach to promote teachers’ professional growth with curriculum-linked professional development (PD) to support the adoption of socio-environmental science investigations (SESI) in an urban school environment that includes reluctant learners. SESI focus on social issues related to environmental science. The pedagogy is inquiry-driven, with students engaged in map-based mobile data

The COMPUGIRLS: Culturally relevant technology program for adolescent girls was developed to promote underrepresented girls' future possible selves and career pathways in computer-related technology fields. We hypothesized that the COMPUGIRLS would promote academic possible selves and self-regulation to achieve these possible selves. We compared the growth trajectories of academic possible selves and self-regulation between the program participants and a comparison group using latent growth modeling for two semesters. There was no significant group difference in the growth trajectories of

Drawing from our two‐year ethnography, we juxtapose the experiences of two cohorts in one culturally responsive computing program, examining how the program fostered girls’ emerging identities as technosocial change agents. In presenting this in‐depth and up‐close exploration, we simultaneously identify conditions that both facilitated and limited the program's potential. Ultimately, we illustrate how these findings can enhance anthropological research and practice in youth identity, culturally responsive pedagogies, and computing education.

This article examines cognitive essence of computational thinking (CT). It introduces a clear and universal definition and suggests that we teach children biological CT skills long before they need to learn electronic CT skills.

Our study seeks to improve understanding of how STEM interest develops during adolescence, and how a variety of community resources and out-of-school activities support that development. Our 4-year, Synergies project is a longitudinal study that documents STEM interest and participation trajectories of a cohort of middle school-aged youth as they progress from 5th through 8th grade. The premise of the project is that if one more fully understood how and why people, in particular early adolescent youth, develop STEM-related interests through the utilization of STEM resources, it should be

This paper, describes Synergies, an on-going longitudinal study and design effort, being conducted in a diverse, under-resourced community in Portland, Oregon, with the goal of measurably improving STEM learning, interest and participation by early adolescents, both in school and out of school. Authors examine how the work of this particular research-practice partnership is attempting to accommodate the six principles outlined in this issue: (1) to more accurately reflect learning as a lifelong process occurring across settings, situations and time frames; (2) to consider what STEM content is

Utilizing a case study research design, the factors that influence teacher learning and change, as well as the processes by which secondary STEM teachers internalize professional development (PD) content, are explored. The authors argue that conceptualizations of teacher learning often do not adequately account for teacher subjectivity and the role of exogenous variables in teacher development. The outcomes of PD are heavily influenced by teacher subjectivity, which includes perceptions, previous knowledge, and the internalization of the power and influence present in educational policy and

Research suggests that an ecologically informed sense of place, including strong place attachment and ecological place meaning, contributes to pro-environmental behaviors. Yet it is unclear whether an intervention such as environmental education can intentionally influence sense of place, especially in cities. To investigate the impact of urban environmental education programs on sense of place, we used pre/post surveys of youth in 5-week environmental and non-environmental summer youth programs in the Bronx, New York City, in 2010. Results show that urban environmental education programs

This study investigated the prevalence of transformative experiences, antecedents of transformative experience, and the relation between transformative experience and deep‐level learning (conceptual change and transfer) for high school biology students ( N = 166). Results suggested that the high school students in our sample typically engaged in low levels of transformative experience with respect to biology, but those students who strongly identified with science and who endorsed a mastery goal orientation were more likely to report engagement in higher levels of transformative experience