Science Learning+: STEM Teens: Examining the role of youth educators as learners and teachers in informal STEM learning sites

鼓励青年在STEM领域接受培训并进入STEM工作队伍的一种方法是在青春期培养对STEM的兴趣和参与。非正式的STEM学习网站(ISL)提供机会，通过多种途径培养对STEM领域的兴趣和参与，包括它们为青年，特别是青少年提供的方案。ISL经常提供参加志愿方案、实习或工作的机会，这使青少年既可以学习相关的STEM知识，也可以通过担任青年教育工作者的机会与他人分享这些知识。虽然青年教育者项目为青少年在这些非正式的STEM环境中既作为学习者又作为教师提供了丰富的背景，但迄今为止的研究尚未确定担任青年教育者与STEM参与之间的关系。因此，本项目的目标是记录青年教育者对ISLS访客学习的影响，并确定实施青年教育者计划的最佳做法。该项目研究了STEM在美国和英国的六个不同ISL中对青年参与者和游客的兴趣和参与度。该项目由科学学习+资助，这是国家科学基金会(NSF)和惠康信托与英国经济和社会研究理事会之间的国际合作伙伴关系。这一联合筹资努力的目标是采取变革性步骤，改善非正式STEM经验的知识库和实践。在国家科学基金会内，Science Learning+是推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划的一部分，该计划旨在加强在非正式环境中的学习，并扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验的机会。这个项目考察了青年教育者与STEM身份、教育抱负和动机相关的经验。该项目还确定了青年教育工作者在对STEM的知识、兴趣和参与度方面对ISLS访问者的影响。具体目标是：1)青少年的成果--衡量参与ISLS扩展的青年教育者体验的纵向影响；2)游客的成果--比较参观者与青年教育者互动时对ISLS展品的参与度和从展品中学习的内容，相对于与成人教育者或非教育者互动的结果；以及3)人口统计和STEM站点的结果-基于参与者的特征，如社会经济地位(SES)、年龄、性别和种族，检查参观者参与度的差异，并比较不同类型ISLS的青年教育者体验的结果。本研究以期望价值理论和社会认知理论为基础，对青少年参与者进行了为期5年的纵向跟踪调查，并利用潜变量分析来了解其对青少年教育者以及与之互动的访客的影响。重要的是，这项研究的结果将被用来制定在ISLS实施青年教育者计划的最佳做法，并将其结果传播给学术和实践社区。该项目以各种方式产生了明显和可衡量的更广泛的影响。首先，该项目通过评价、发展和传播最佳做法，为改进国际空间法系统青年方案拟订工作提供指导，包括直接参与研究的网站和为更大的国际空间法系统社区提供指导。此外，该项目还提供了严格的、以研究为基础的证据，以确定和描述青年教育者计划的成果。这项研究通过接触科学的机会，直接使研究参与者受益，无论是来访的公众还是青年教育工作者。这些发现涉及到ISLS的可获得性和包容性问题，为如何设计对不同学习者群体友好和可获得性的环境提供了洞察。最后，这一项目提供了证据，证明了ISLS在制定青年方案方面的最佳做法，这将导致代表人数不足的群体成员对STEM职业产生兴趣和追求。

One way to encourage youth to pursue training in the STEM fields and enter the STEM workforce is to foster interest and engagement in STEM during adolescence. Informal STEM Learning Sites (ISLS) provide opportunities for building interest and engagement in the STEM fields through a multitude of avenues, including the programming that they provide for youth, particularly teens. Frequently, ISLS provide opportunities to participate in volunteer programs, internships or work, which allow teens both to learn relevant STEM knowledge as well as to share that knowledge with others through opportunities to serve as youth educators. While youth educator programs provide rich contexts for teens to engage as both learners and teachers in these informal STEM environments, research to date has not yet identified the relationship between serving as youth educators and STEM engagement. Thus, the goal of this project is to document the impact of youth educators on visitor learning in ISLS and to identify best practices for implementing youth educator programs. The project studies STEM interests and engagement in the youth participants and the visitors that they interact with at six different ISLS in the US and UK. This project is funded through Science Learning+, which is an international partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Wellcome Trust with the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The goal of this joint funding effort is to make transformational steps toward improving the knowledge base and practices of informal STEM experiences. Within NSF, Science Learning+ is part of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program that seeks to enhance learning in informal environments and to broaden access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences. This project examines youth educator experiences related to STEM identity, educational aspirations, and motivation. The project also identifies outcomes that the youth educators have on visitors to ISLS in terms of knowledge, interest, and engagement in STEM. The specific aims are: 1) Outcomes for Teens - To measure the longitudinal impact of participation in an extended youth educator experience in an ISLS; 2) Outcomes for Visitors - To compare visitor engagement with and learning from exhibits in ISLS when they interact with a youth educator, relative to outcomes of interacting with an adult educator or no educator; and 3) Outcomes Across Demographics and STEM Sites - To examine differences in visitor engagement based on participant characteristics such as socio-economic status (SES), age, gender, and ethnicity and to compare outcomes of youth educator experiences across different types of ISLS. This research, which draws on expectancy value theory and social cognitive theory, will follow youth participants longitudinally over the course of 5 years and use latent variable analyses to understand the impact on the youth educators as well as the visitors with whom they interact. Importantly, the results of this research will be used to develop best practices for implementing youth educator programs in ISLS and the results will be disseminated to both academic and practice-based communities. This project has clear and measurable broader impacts in a variety of ways. First, the project provides guidance to improve programming for youth in ISLS, including both the sites involved directly in the research and to the larger community of ISLS through evaluation, development, and dissemination of best practices. Additionally, this project provides rigorous, research-based evidence to identify and describe the outcomes of youth educator programs. This study directly benefits the participants of the research, both the visiting public and the youth educators, through opportunities to engage with science. The findings speak to issues of access and inclusivity in ISLS, providing insight into how to design environments that are welcoming and accessible for diverse groups of learners. Finally, this project provides evidence for best practices for ISLS in developing programs for youth that will lead to interest in and pursuit of STEM careers by members of underrepresented groups.