Roads Taken - Long-term Impacts of STEM Youth Programs: Conference

作为加强非正式环境学习总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）项目为各种环境中使用的创新资源提供资金。该会议提案代表了一个更大的三期参与性研究项目的第一阶段，该项目将利用感兴趣的社区作为解决有关设计基于青年的STEM项目的共同关注的问题的工具。它将为未来10-25年的研究奠定基础，研究各种青年项目对STEM学习和职业抱负的长期影响。通过虚拟形式，科学技术中心协会将召集来自10个长期青年项目的两名代表、校外青年项目领域的专家和研究人员，共同制定一个项目概况模板，以衡量青年项目的影响。项目简介模板将有助于确定具体特征，这些特征将反映青年项目对他们参与校外STEM活动的影响。程序概要模板将是会议的主要成果。它将作为设计长期影响研究的基础，以支持对改善非正式环境中的青年方案编制感兴趣的方案工作人员的需要。它还将允许项目工作人员和研究人员记录和共享智力资本，比较项目之间的目标和特征，并支持全球非正式机构之间的网络努力。项目简介模板将通过非正式科学网站、科学技术中心协会的实践网络社区以及其他校外国家组织在网上分享。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This conference proposal represents the first phase of a larger three-phase participatory research project that will use communities of interest as a vehicle for solving problems of common concern about designing youth-based STEM programs. It will set the stage for research over the next 10-25 years about the long-term impact of a variety of youth programs on STEM learning and career aspirations. Through a virtual format, the Association of Science-Technology Centers will bring together two representatives from ten long-standing youth programs, experts in the field of out-of-school time youth programming, and researchers to collaboratively develop a program profile template for measuring the impact of youth programming. The program profile template will help identify specific characteristics that will capture the influence of youth programs on their participation in out-of-school STEM activities. The program profile template will be the main outcome from the conference. It will serve as the foundation for designing long-term impact studies that support the needs of program staff interested in improving youth programming in informal environments. It will also allow program staff and researchers to document and share intellectual capital, compare goals and features across programs, and support network efforts among informal agencies worldwide. The program profile template will be shared online through informalscience.org, the Association of Science-Technology Centers' communities of practice networks, and through other out-of-school-time national organizations.