Youth Engaged in STEM and Service: Locally- and Globally-Relevant Solar Technology Summer Experiences

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The Youth Engaged in STEM and Service: Locally- and Globally-Relevant Solar Technology Summer Experiences project responds to the pressing need for systems of formal and informal STEM education to support Black, brown, and female-identifying youth with opportunities for youth to build and sustain their interests in STEM beyond required coursework. This project will leverage community-based partnerships to broaden the participation of youth from female-identifying and Black and brown communities through engaging, hands-on solar technology summer camps. The investigators will co-design and implement two summer camp models that engage youth in project-based learning experiences through the lens of either (1) local relevance or (2) global service learning. These camps will operate under the premise that drawing connections to youths’ lived experiences, interests, and globally relevant issues empowers youth to see themselves as someone who can do and be a scientist and engineer. In each of these camp models, youth will learn about electricity, energy, engineering, and solar technology; engage in science and engineering practices; and gain a greater awareness of STEM career pathways. The camps will draw connections to either local issues that directly impact youth’s lived experiences and communities (local relevance), or global social issues with an opportunity to use what they learn to enact social change (global service learning). The Youth Engaged in STEM and Service project aims to contribute to the field’s understanding of the strengths and challenges of two approaches to culturally relevant program design, with important implications for STEM programmatic decision-making. The research will include a three-part study to examine the design and development, implementation, and learner outcomes of this project. The project will build on the field’s understanding of the key programmatic characteristics and necessary conditions that can support culturally relevant STEM programming for Black and brown and female-identifying youth. Utilizing design-based research, the project will engage in an iterative design process with community-based partners to develop program models for two solar power summer camps, using two approaches to culturally relevant programming: one focused on global service learning and one on local relevance. An implementation study will deepen our understanding of how the features of the two experiences support implementation and youth engagement. Finally, the learner outcomes study will use a quasi-experimental mixed methods approach to examine the impact of camp experiences on youth’s cognitive and social-emotional outcomes. Cognitive outcomes include students’ understanding of STEM content and awareness of STEM career pathways. Social-emotional outcomes include dispositions, interest and identity associated with science. In addition, the study will investigate differential outcomes by gender identity and seek to understand the conditions that attribute to these differences. The study will rely on quantitative and qualitative data including content assessments; observations; interviews; and youth surveys that measure STEM fascination, values, competency beliefs, engagement, and science identity. Outcomes of the project include the research findings as well as curricular resources for hands-on, culturally-relevant summer camps centered around solar technology.This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.