Integration of STEM and Social-Emotional Development in Out-of-School Time Programs: A Virtual Conference

今天的校外时间（OST）计划是基于积极的青年发展框架。据国家研究理事会称，高质量的OST项目将青年发展框架应用于STEM，为年轻人提供丰富的、引人入胜的学习经验，将STEM概念与实践活动结合起来。这些经验将STEM应用于现实世界的社会环境，促进青年的声音和选择，与成年人和同龄人建立关系，并支持学习，思考，兴趣和身份发展。目前，OST计划的重点是关注影响所有学习和表现的社会和情感技能的发展。社会情感技能，如毅力，建立关系，解决问题和自我意识，也被称为21世纪的技能，劳动力技能，生活技能，基本技能或软技能。在这次会议上，将使用社会情感发展（SED）一词，将上述术语和社会情感学习结合起来。SED和STEM之间存在着潜在的深刻而有效的联系，优先考虑对两个领域都至关重要的技能。在这次虚拟会议上，PEAR研究所将召集能够想象STEM和SED综合愿景的力量的从业者和研究人员。本次会议的一个重要目的是促进OST计划以高质量的方式有意和明确地整合STEM和SED。实现这一目标的活动包括：（1）绘制科学、技术、工程和系统教育在开放源码软件中整合的实践图景，以了解对此类方案的兴趣、能力和需求;（2）记录说明明确和有意的方案整合的范例;（3）探索现有的和潜在的研究人员-实践者伙伴关系，以了解方法，数据，（4）起草一份研究议程，重点关注STEM-SED综合规划的实施质量和影响。本次会议的目标受众是专业人士。与会者将代表STEM和SED社区的多样性，包括国家青年服务组织的代表（例如，行政人员，研究主任，从业人员），国家课后网络（例如，网络领导，暑期和课后实践者，教育政策的贡献者），以及STEM学习生态系统（例如，社区领导、OST从业者、商业领袖、学院和大学研究人员）。会议形式包括一个简短的介绍性会议和两个较长的工作会议。在小组成员和工作组负责人的投入下，该团队将制作一个讲述式幻灯片，重点关注STEM和SED之间的联系，以创新评估和数据系统，用于研究和实践。除了解说幻灯片外，项目团队还将为该领域制作两份会议简报（即，该奖项由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获取和参与STEM学习经验。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Out-of-school time (OST) programs today are grounded in the positive youth development framework. According to the National Research Council, high-quality OST programs apply the youth development framework to STEM by providing young people with rich, engaging learning experiences that couple STEM concepts with hands-on activities. These experiences apply STEM to real-world social contexts, foster youth voice and choice, build relationships with adults and peers, and support learning, thinking, interest, and identity development. Presently, there is emphasis for OST programs to focus on the development of social and emotional skills that impact all learning and performance. Social emotional skills, like perseverance, relationship building, problem-solving, and self-awareness, are also referred to as 21st-century skills, workforce skills, life skills, essential skills, or soft skills. For this conference, the term social-emotional development (SED), incorporating the above terms and social-emotional learning, will be used. There is a potentially deep and effective connection between SED and STEM, prioritizing skills that are mutually important to both fields.In this virtual conference, The PEAR Institute will convene practitioners and researchers who can imagine the power of an integrated vision of STEM and SED. An important aim of this conference is to catalyze OST programs toward the intentional and explicit integration of STEM and SED in a high-quality manner. Activities by which this will happen include: (1) mapping the practice landscape of STEM-SED integration in OST to understand the interest in, capacity of, and demand for such programming; (2) documenting exemplars that illustrate explicit and intentional program integration; (3) exploring existing and potential researcher-practitioner partnerships to understand methods, data, and data systems used to capture efficacy and effectiveness of integrated STEM-SED programming; and, (4) drafting a research agenda that focuses on the quality of implementation and impact of integrated STEM-SED programming. The target audience for this conference consists of professionals. Participants will represent the diversity of STEM and SED communities, including representatives of national youth-serving organizations (e.g., executives, research directors, practitioners), State Afterschool Networks (e.g., network leads, summer and afterschool practitioners, contributors to educational policy), and STEM learning ecosystems (e.g., community leads, OST practitioners, business leaders, college and university researchers). The conference format includes one short introductory session to set the stage and two longer working sessions. With input from the panelists and working group leaders, the team will produce a narrated slideshow focused on the mapping of the connections between STEM and SED to innovate assessment and data systems for research and practice. In addition to the narrated slideshow, the project team will produce two conference briefs for the field (i.e., one to two-page descriptions of findings), and an informal webinar regarding the conference outcomes.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.