GSE/RES: Markers of STEM Success (MOSS): An Eleven-Year Longitudinal Study of High Achieving Young Women's Interests, Experiences, and Preparation for STEM Careers

在过去的七年里，研究人员收集了250名11-20岁的年轻女性的数据，她们参加了一个为优秀女孩举办的夏令营。本研究项目为STEM职业选择研究提供了一个扩展和重定向当前数据库的机会。与STEM职业选择模型相关的研究问题有：1。随着时间的推移，对STEM职业的兴趣如何影响高成就年轻女性的经历和教育准备？随着时间的推移，经历是如何影响高成就年轻女性的兴趣和教育准备的？随着时间的推移，高成就年轻女性的教育准备如何影响她们的兴趣和经历？在高成就的年轻女性的经历、兴趣和教育中，影响STEM职业决策的关键事件是什么？将对该模型进行测试，以了解这些因素如何随着时间的推移，以迭代、递归、非线性的方式相互作用。再加上对关键事件的识别，本研究将更深入地了解女性的STEM职业选择。智力优势——研究结果将更全面地定义模型的因素，以及这些因素如何相互作用，以实现女性在STEM职业中的更多参与。研究结果将绘制出成绩优异的年轻女性从中学进入研究生院或职业生涯的个人职业轨迹。该研究假设，随着时间的推移，会发生一些可识别的关键事件，吸引并留住高成就的年轻女性从事STEM职业。这种开始的管道方法每年定期收集数据，并且当数据保留在管道中或从管道中泄漏时，受试者很容易召回和检索数据。这种致力于STEM职业的方法与要求STEM大学专业或研究生回忆他们在初中或高中的个人经历的方法有所不同，而且更准确。更广泛的影响——很少有，如果有的话，纵向研究从中学到研究生院或第一次职业生涯的高成就年轻女性。这些新数据有可能为研究人员提供信息，帮助他们更好地理解和概念化STEM职业选择，包括11-24岁高成就女性的兴趣、经验和教育等因素中的关键事件。更广泛的影响将来自对这些关键事件的性质、时间、频率和形式的识别。有了这些知识，及时和激励的环境和教育经验可能会以具有成本效益的方式发展，从而增加年轻女性对STEM职业的兴趣。

Over the past seven years data have been collected on 250 young women, ages 11-20 after they attended a summer camp for high achieving girls. This research project provides an opportunity to extend and redirect the current database for a study of STEM career choice. The research questions related to the STEM Career Choice Model are:1. How do interests in STEM careers affect high achieving young women's experiences and educational preparation over time?2. How do experiences, over time, affect high achieving young women's interests and educational preparation?3. How does the educational preparation of high achieving young women, over time, affect their interests and experiences?4. What are the critical events within high achieving young women's experience, interest, and education that affect STEM career decisions?The model will be tested to understand how these factors interact with one another, over time, in an iterative, recursive, non-linear fashion. Coupled with the identification of critical events, this study will provide greater insight into women's STEM career choices.Intellectual Merit-- Findings will more fully define the factors of the model and how these factors interact to achieve the increased participation of women in STEM careers. The findings will map individual career trajectories that are taken by high achieving young women from middle grades into gradate school or their careers. The study assumes that there are identifiable critical events that occur over time that attract and retain high achieving young women to STEM careers. This beginning pipeline approach collects data annually at regular intervals, and the data are easily recalled and retrieved by the subjects as they remain in or leak from the pipeline. This approach of working toward a STEM career is somewhat different and more accurate than working back from the end of the pipeline asking a STEM college major or graduate student to recall their personal histories from middle school or high school.Broader Impact-- There are very few, if any, longitudinal studies of high achieving young women from middle grades into graduate school or first careers. The new data has the potential to provide researchers with information that may lead to a better understanding and conceptualization of STEM career choice in terms of critical events within the factors of interest, experience, and education for high achieving women from ages 11-24. The broader impact will emerge from the identification of the nature, timing, frequency, and form of these critical events. With this knowledge timely and motivating environments and educational experiences may be developed in a cost-effective manner leading to increased interest among young women in STEM careers.