RAPID: Supports and Challenges in an Educational Crisis: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth STEM Pathways

在全国范围内，非正式环境中的教育工作者和导师为青年提供了沿着STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）轨迹坚持和发展的机会。不幸的是，当前的COVID-19大流行可能会限制年轻人继续追求STEM道路的机会，因为他们无法获得重要资源，例如科学实验室和其他STEM学习空间的导师。这一流行病的影响可能对来自代表性不足群体的青年尤其有害，因为他们的家庭受到这一危机的不成比例的影响。该项目的目的是研究COVID-19对来自代表性不足群体的青少年的STEM轨迹的影响，这些青少年在大流行之前曾作为导师与科学家一起工作。一项将对数百名青少年进行的调查将确定他们在继续追求STEM大学和职业道路时成功应对干扰的支持。对于那些在疫情期间决定不积极追求STEM道路的青少年来说，这项调查将阐明失去支持和新的挑战是如何阻碍他们积极追求STEM的。通过确定鼓励或阻碍STEM追求的支持和挑战，该项目将推进关于非正式学习计划如何支持代表性不足的青少年在国家危机和紧急情况下坚持STEM道路的知识。美国自然历史博物馆将开展混合方法研究，探索疫情对代表性不足的青少年STEM发展轨迹的影响。他们将对560名青少年进行调查，这些青少年来自以前参加过纽约市科学研究指导联盟的代表性不足的群体。调查将确定青年是否以及如何获得新的支助或失去获得以前支助的机会；他们是否面临新的挑战，以及他们如何应对这些挑战；以及他们对在大学及以后攻读STEM的看法是否发生了变化，以及如何发生了变化。完成调查的青少年将找出在他们的生活中对他们在STEM领域的追求起到重要支持作用的成年人，每个青少年还将邀请两名成年人完成关于感知干扰的调查。通过潜在阶层分析、认知访谈、青年和调查专家咨询来建立调查效度，并通过双模式社会网络分析来分析调查结果。此外，16名青少年将参加关于疫情对其STEM发展轨迹影响的深度访谈。研究结果和对实践的影响将广泛传播给非正式科学教育的研究人员、教育工作者和导师。这些调查结果将有助于利益攸关方在当前大流行期间和未来的国家紧急情况期间为代表性不足的青年提供更好的支持。该项目由高级非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助。作为其加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，AISL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，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Across the country, educators and mentors in informal settings have provided youth with opportunities to persist and thrive along STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) trajectories. Unfortunately, the current COVID-19 pandemic may limit youths’ opportunities to continue pursuing STEM pathways by removing their access to important resources, such as mentors in science labs and other STEM learning spaces. The impact of the pandemic may be especially harmful for youth from underrepresented groups whose families have been disproportionately affected by this crisis. The purpose of this project is to study the impact of COVID-19 on the STEM trajectories of teenagers from underrepresented groups who had previously worked with scientists as mentors before the pandemic. A survey, which will be administered to hundreds of teenagers, will identify the supports that they used to successfully navigate disruptions as they continued to pursue college and career pathways in STEM. For teenagers who decided not to actively pursue STEM pathways during the pandemic, this survey will illuminate how loss of supports and new challenges discouraged their active pursuit of STEM. By identifying supports and challenges that encouraged or discouraged STEM pursuits, this project will advance knowledge on how informal learning programs can support underrepresented teenagers in persisting along STEM pathways during national crises and emergencies.The American Museum of Natural History will conduct mixed-methods research to explore the impact of the pandemic on the STEM trajectories of underrepresented teenagers. They will administer surveys to 560 teenagers from underrepresented groups who previously participated in the New York City Science Research Mentoring Consortium. The survey will ascertain whether and how the youth found access to new supports or lost access to former supports; whether they face new challenges and how they have responded to those challenges; and whether and how their feelings about pursuing STEM in college and beyond have changed. Teenagers who complete the survey will identify adults in their lives who have been important in supporting their pursuits in STEM, and two adults per teenager will also be invited to complete surveys on perceived disruptions. Latent class analyses, cognitive interviews, and consultation with youth and survey experts will be used to establish survey validity, while the survey results will be analyzed via two-mode social network analysis. Additionally, 16 teenagers will participate in in-depth interviews regarding the impact of the pandemic on their STEM trajectories. Findings and implications for practice will be disseminated widely to researchers, educators, and mentors in informal science education. These findings will help stakeholders to provide better supports for underrepresented youth during the current pandemic and during future national emergencies. This project is funded by the Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the AISL program 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, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.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.