Teen Science Cafes for Advancing STEM in Rural Places

作为在非正式环境中加强学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划为各种环境中使用的创新研究、方法和资源提供资金。在这个项目中，多年来，科学咖啡馆已经成为向公众展示科学信息的有用机制。最近，这个论坛成功地被用作青少年的交流机制。虽然这一机制在城市和郊区的青年中取得了成功，但在农村青少年中却没有奏效。因此，这个项目旨在探寻青少年科学咖啡馆(TSC)在农村环境中面临的挑战，并找到克服这些挑战的方法。长期目标是让大量青少年参与进来，他们将作为公民进入成年，对科学过程有复杂的了解，并将沿着无数条途径进入美国STEM劳动力大军。这项研究将集中在农村地区青少年科学咖啡馆的关键组成部分和结果方面，什么对谁有效，在哪里工作。在最广泛的层面上，该项目将通过产生一个将OST(课外时间)STEM带到农村社区的全国模式来加强基础设施和能力建设。在两个项目年中，大约600名独特的参与者将参加青少年科学咖啡馆，这些咖啡馆激发了他们对STEM的好奇心，提供了领导机会，并使STEM职业对于那些经常无法在学校获得高质量STEM项目的农村学生来说更容易看到、更具参与性和更容易接近。该项目针对农村地区的具体目标是：(1)测试国家专业发展模式的可行性和有效性，该模式以面对面的虚拟实践社区为中心，供领导青少年科学咖啡馆的非正式STEM教育者使用。(2)建立研究-实践伙伴关系，让PIS和CAFE的领导人参与：i)确定并记录现有的当地条件、资源和挑战及其对OST STEM教育的意义；ii)与同行和PIS合作，系统地测试让农村青少年参与TSC的新战略；(3)在青少年中培养STEM无处不在的心态。农村青少年往往是与世隔绝的，他们在社区中的STEM职业生涯在很大程度上是他们看不见的。到目前为止，已有19个地理和人口结构不同的活跃青少年咖啡馆网站致力于该项目。私人投资者将使用多方面的方法来表征乡村，他们将使用既定的相对乡村指数(IRR)，该指数包括四个空间变量(偏远程度、总体人口数量、密度和建成土地比例)。Cafe系列在每个站点的影响将通过多种方法确定，包括：(1)对青少年进行事前调查，采用STEM态度和参与度的衡量标准；(2)成年领导人发布详细的博客帖子，描述青少年的挑战/成功；(3)采访领导人，以揭示他们对与战略成功相关的原因的看法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. In this project, Science Cafe's have emerged over the years as a useful mechanism for exposure of scientific information to the public. More recently, this forum has been successfully used as a communication mechanism for teens. While this mechanism is successful with urban and suburban youth, it has not been efficacious with rural teens. Thus, this project is designed to ferret out the challenges faced by Teen Science Cafe's(TSCs) in rural settings and find ways to surmount them. The long-term goal is to engage a large number of teens who will enter adulthood as citizens with a sophisticated understanding of the science process and who will follow a myriad of pathways into the U.S. STEM workforce. The research will focus on what works, for whom, and where with respect to the key components and outcomes of teen science cafe's in rural areas. At the broadest level, the project will strengthen infrastructure and build capacity by producing a national model for bringing OST (out of school time) STEM to rural communities. Over the two project years, approximately 600 unique participants will participate in teen science cafe's that engage their curiosity in STEM, provide leadership opportunities, and make STEM occupations more visible, participatory and approachable for rural teems who often lack access to high quality STEM programs in school. Specific goals of the project for rural settings are: (1) To test the feasibility and effectiveness of a national model of professional development centered on an in-person and virtual community of practice for informal STEM educators leading teen science cafe's. (2) Form research-practice partnerships involving the PIs and the leaders of cafe's to: i) identify and document existing local conditions, resources, and challenges and their significance for OST STEM education; ii) work collaboratively with peers and the PIs to systematically test new strategies for engaging rural teens in TSCs; (3) Cultivate a mindset among teens that STEM IS EVERYWHERE. Rural teens are often isolated and the STEM careers in their communities are largely invisible to them. To date, 19 geographically and demographically diverse active teen cafe's sites have committed to the project. The PIs will use a multifaceted approach to characterizing rurality, They will use the established Index of Relative Rurality (IRR) which includes four spatial variables (remoteness, overall population size, density, and proportion of built-up land). The impact of the Cafe's series at each site will be determined via multiple methods, including: (1) pre-post-surveys with teens, employing the measure of STEM attitudes and engagement; (2) detailed blog postings by adult leaders describing the challenges/successes of teen and (3) interviews with leaders to uncover their perceptions of the reasons associated with success of the strategy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.