STEM Pathways for Rural Youth: Developing STEM Identity Through the Outdoors

对于一些农村社区来说，户外娱乐生态系统是STEM学习生态系统的组成部分，该生态系统将农村青年与STEM和STEM职业道路联系起来。土地所有者和森林管理者建造和飞行无人机，以清查、绘制地图和监测资源。孵化场监测鱼类水平并维持休闲渔业的种群数量。野外滑雪者依靠雪科学和雪崩预报来评估条件。农村社区的青年目前从事的户外娱乐活动可以成为培养他们的STEM特性和职业抱负的机会和经验的来源。现有的研究显示了具体的一次性干预和离散活动的前景，但没有一项活动将活动置于更广泛的生态系统框架中，该框架包括目前正在塑造农村社区的新生和不断增长的经济部门。这一试点和可行性项目汇集了新汉普郡(NH)的非营利性教育研究组织CAST、新汉普郡大学(UNH)以及户外娱乐和非正式的STEM社区青年服务组织。本研究将特别探讨青少年参与(或厌恶)户外活动对高中生STEM身份认同发展的贡献，以及透过户外活动对STEM职业生涯的考虑。研究人员试图解决三个问题：户外娱乐如何作为一种非正式的STEM学习环境，以扩大代表不足的农村青年的参与，他们面临着发展积极STEM身份所必需的传统学习经历的已知障碍？如何利用户外娱乐活动来增加未被充分代表的农村青年的STEM职业道路？在STEM生态系统中处于不同位置的人们如何看待STEM作为未来或经济的一部分？在这项定性为主的研究中，调查人员将采用体验抽样的方式，让30名农村社区的年轻人和10名成年人收集他们从事户外娱乐的时刻，并通过PhotoVoice鼓励他们审视和反思这些时刻。另一组来自社区的20名青年和30名成年人将接受采访，以考虑社区成员如何看待户外娱乐作为未来STEM职业道路的一部分的可行性。该奖项由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径来扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验的途径。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。

For some rural communities, the outdoor recreation ecosystem is an integral part of the STEM learning ecosystem that connects rural youth with STEM and STEM career pathways. Landowners and forest managers construct and fly drones to inventory, map, and monitor resources. Hatcheries monitor fish levels and sustain populations for recreational fisheries. Backcountry skiers depend on snow science and avalanche forecasts to assess conditions. Outdoor recreation that youth in rural communities are currently engaging in can be sources of opportunities and experiences for cultivating their STEM identities and career aspirations. Existing studies have shown the promise of specific, one-time interventions and discrete activities, none have situated activities in a broader ecosystem framework comprising a nascent and growing economic sector that is currently shaping rural communities.This Pilot and Feasibility project brings together CAST, a non-profit education research organization, the University of New Hampshire (UNH), and outdoor-recreation and informal STEM community-based youth-serving organizations in New Hampshire (NH). In particular, this study will investigate the contributions of youth's participation in (or aversion of) outdoor recreation on developing high school aged students' STEM identities and considerations of careers in STEM through outdoor recreation. Researchers seek to address three questions: How can outdoor recreation be used as an informal STEM learning context to broaden participation for underrepresented rural youth who face known barriers to the traditional learning experiences necessary for developing positive STEM identities? How can outdoor recreation be used to increase the STEM career pathways for underrepresented rural youth? How do people in different positions in the STEM ecosystem view STEM as part of the future OR economy? In this qualitative dominant research study, investigators will employ experience sampling to involve 30 youth and 10 adults in rural communities in collecting their moments of engaging in outdoor recreation, and photovoice to encourage them to examine and reflect on these moments. Another group of 20 youth and 30 adults from the community will be interviewed to consider how members of the community perceives viability of outdoor recreation as a part of future STEM career pathways.This award is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences.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.