This paper describes the journey of a group of university students as they worked with underserved middle school students as mentors in a STEM-based afterschool program. Design thinking provided a frame within which students learned how to be mentors, how to create user-centered learning experiences, and how to share their experiences as developing STEM professionals with middle school students.

In this study we examined three after-school settings for 8 weeks focusing on storyboarding, chatting on a social network site, videotaped conversations with volunteer facilitators, presentations the youth made at the end of the program, and structured interviews with researchers to look for evidence of learning in afterschool spaces.

Engaging middle school youth in STEM curricula resulting in desired conceptual changes is challenging. Furthermore, social media are identified as platforms where youth naturally congregate for sustained interaction. Studio STEM was designed as an after school programme to engage learners (ages 11–15) in design-based science inquiry within a studio environment, enhanced by social media and digital tools. In the highlighted curriculum, Save the Penguins, youth performed scientific experiments and engineering practices to design an enclosure to protect penguin-shaped ice cubes from rising

The concept of connected learning proposes that youth leverage individual interest and social media to drive learning with an academic focus. To illustrate, we present in-depth case studies of Ryan and Sam, two middle-school-age youth, to document an out-of-school intervention intended to direct toward intentional learning in STEM that taps interest and motivation. The investigation focused on how Ryan and Sam interacted with the designed elements of Studio STEM and whether they became more engaged to gain deeper learning about science concepts related to energy sustainability. The

An unknown shipwreck waited at the bottom of the Olympic-sized pool for teams to explore and identify in March at Gray’s Reef Southeast Regional MATE ROV Competition. Engaging students and educators with technology and research methods employed by NOAA field scientists is the reason that National Marine Sanctuaries partner with the California based Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center. With annual pool missions that reflect the science of the Sanctuaries, MATE challenges student teams to design and build a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and embark on a flight path to the

2013 was the 12th year the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center at Monterey Peninsula College has held this competition. Their goal in doing so was to increase awareness of marine technical fields and careers. Their efforts connect students and educators with employers and working professionals. The ROV competition is a big event, but it is not all they do. Their workshops provide educators with resources and training to bring the world of marine technology, research, exploration and industry to their classrooms.

Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has spent the last eight years developing and implementing a comprehensive educational robotics program for youth ages 9-14. The program is delivered in informal (out-of-school) learning environments through robotics camps, clubs, and competitions and has provided robotics experiences to over 5,000 youth and 400 educators.

In community centers, labs, and classrooms, young people from around the country are diving into STEM learning experiences. They’re devoting some of their valuable out-of school hours to experiment and make discoveries, at the same time building skills in science, math, engineering, and technology. Why? What do they get out of it? What motivates them to participate, and what would inspire them to further pursue STEM learning and careers? What program elements most effectively support STEM workforce development? What partnerships work best? How should staff be prepared? And how can programs be

Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow theory states that a balance between challenge and skill leads to high engagement, overwhelming challenge leads to anxiety or frustration, and insufficient challenge leads to boredom. In this paper, we test this theory within the context of student interaction with an intelligent tutoring system. Automated detectors of student affect and knowledge were developed, validated, and applied to a large data set. The results did not match Flow theory: boredom was more common for poorly -known material, and frustration was common both for very difficult material and very easy