Science Learning+: STEM Teens: Examining the role of youth educators as learners and teachers in informal STEM learning sites

鼓励年轻人在STEM领域接受培训并加入STEM劳动力队伍的一种方法是在青春期培养对STEM的兴趣和参与。 非正式STEM学习网站（ISLS）通过多种途径，包括他们为青年，特别是青少年提供的节目，为培养对STEM领域的兴趣和参与提供了机会。ISLS经常提供参与志愿者计划，实习或工作的机会，这使得青少年既可以学习相关的STEM知识，也可以通过担任青年教育工作者的机会与他人分享这些知识。虽然青少年教育者计划为青少年在这些非正式的STEM环境中作为学习者和教师参与提供了丰富的背景，但迄今为止的研究尚未确定担任青少年教育者与STEM参与之间的关系。 因此，本项目的目标是记录青年教育工作者对游客学习的影响，并确定实施青年教育工作者方案的最佳做法。该项目研究STEM的兴趣和参与的青年参与者和游客，他们在六个不同的ISLS在美国和英国互动。 该项目由科学学习+资助，这是国家科学基金会（NSF）和惠康信托基金与英国经济和社会研究理事会之间的国际伙伴关系。这项联合资助工作的目标是朝着改善非正式STEM经验的知识基础和实践迈出转型步伐。在NSF内部，科学学习+是推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划的一部分，该计划旨在加强非正式环境中的学习，并扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与。 该项目研究了青年教育工作者与STEM身份，教育愿望和动机相关的经验。该项目还确定了青年教育工作者在知识，兴趣和参与STEM方面对ISLS访问者的成果。具体目标是：1）青少年的结果-测量参与扩展的青年教育者在ISLS体验的纵向影响; 2）游客的结果-比较游客参与和学习ISLS展览时，他们与青年教育者互动，相对于与成人教育者或没有教育者互动的结果;和3）人口统计学和STEM网站的结果-根据参与者的特征，如社会经济地位（SES），年龄，性别，和种族，并比较不同类型的ISLS青年教育工作者的经验成果。这项研究，它借鉴了期望值理论和社会认知理论，将跟踪青年参与者纵向超过5年的过程中，并使用潜变量分析，以了解对青年教育工作者以及游客与他们互动的影响。 重要的是，这项研究的结果将被用来制定在ISLS实施青年教育者计划的最佳做法，其结果将传播给学术和实践为基础的社区。 该项目以各种方式产生了明确和可衡量的广泛影响。第一，该项目提供指导，以改善青年规划的ISLS，包括直接参与研究的网站和更大的社区的ISLS通过评估，开发和传播的最佳做法。此外，该项目提供了严格的，基于研究的证据，以确定和描述青年教育者计划的成果。这项研究通过参与科学的机会，直接使研究的参与者，包括来访的公众和青年教育工作者受益。调查结果谈到了ISLS的访问和包容性问题，为如何设计欢迎和访问不同学习者群体的环境提供了见解。最后，该项目为ISLS制定青年计划的最佳实践提供了证据，这些计划将导致代表性不足的群体成员对STEM职业的兴趣和追求。

One way to encourage youth to pursue training in the STEM fields and enter the STEM workforce is to foster interest and engagement in STEM during adolescence. Informal STEM Learning Sites (ISLS) provide opportunities for building interest and engagement in the STEM fields through a multitude of avenues, including the programming that they provide for youth, particularly teens. Frequently, ISLS provide opportunities to participate in volunteer programs, internships or work, which allow teens both to learn relevant STEM knowledge as well as to share that knowledge with others through opportunities to serve as youth educators. While youth educator programs provide rich contexts for teens to engage as both learners and teachers in these informal STEM environments, research to date has not yet identified the relationship between serving as youth educators and STEM engagement. Thus, the goal of this project is to document the impact of youth educators on visitor learning in ISLS and to identify best practices for implementing youth educator programs. The project studies STEM interests and engagement in the youth participants and the visitors that they interact with at six different ISLS in the US and UK. This project is funded through Science Learning+, which is an international partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Wellcome Trust with the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The goal of this joint funding effort is to make transformational steps toward improving the knowledge base and practices of informal STEM experiences. Within NSF, Science Learning+ is part of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program that seeks to enhance learning in informal environments and to broaden access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences. This project examines youth educator experiences related to STEM identity, educational aspirations, and motivation. The project also identifies outcomes that the youth educators have on visitors to ISLS in terms of knowledge, interest, and engagement in STEM. The specific aims are: 1) Outcomes for Teens - To measure the longitudinal impact of participation in an extended youth educator experience in an ISLS; 2) Outcomes for Visitors - To compare visitor engagement with and learning from exhibits in ISLS when they interact with a youth educator, relative to outcomes of interacting with an adult educator or no educator; and 3) Outcomes Across Demographics and STEM Sites - To examine differences in visitor engagement based on participant characteristics such as socio-economic status (SES), age, gender, and ethnicity and to compare outcomes of youth educator experiences across different types of ISLS. This research, which draws on expectancy value theory and social cognitive theory, will follow youth participants longitudinally over the course of 5 years and use latent variable analyses to understand the impact on the youth educators as well as the visitors with whom they interact. Importantly, the results of this research will be used to develop best practices for implementing youth educator programs in ISLS and the results will be disseminated to both academic and practice-based communities. This project has clear and measurable broader impacts in a variety of ways. First, the project provides guidance to improve programming for youth in ISLS, including both the sites involved directly in the research and to the larger community of ISLS through evaluation, development, and dissemination of best practices. Additionally, this project provides rigorous, research-based evidence to identify and describe the outcomes of youth educator programs. This study directly benefits the participants of the research, both the visiting public and the youth educators, through opportunities to engage with science. The findings speak to issues of access and inclusivity in ISLS, providing insight into how to design environments that are welcoming and accessible for diverse groups of learners. Finally, this project provides evidence for best practices for ISLS in developing programs for youth that will lead to interest in and pursuit of STEM careers by members of underrepresented groups.