16306 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Odesma Dalrymple
  2. https://www.sandiego.edu/engineering/faculty-and-staff/biography.php?profile_id=787
  3. Associate Professor
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. University of San Diego
  1. Yaoran Li
  2. https://www.sandiego.edu/soles/about/directory/biography.php?profile_id=2017
  3. Managing Researcher
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. University of San Diego
  1. Perla Myers
  2. https://www.sandiego.edu/directory/biography.php?profile_id=367
  3. Professor
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. University of San Diego
  1. Vitaliy Popov
  2. Associate Director of Research
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. University of San Diego
  1. Joi Spencer
  2. Associate Professor
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. University of San Diego

Bridging the World of Work and Informal STEM Education

NSF Awards: 1713547

2019 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades 6-8

View video in Spanish

STEMWoW is a multilayered approach to STEM learning and workforce development in STEM fields, targeting Hispanic youth. The project explores youth STEM identity through three mechanisms: (1) an assessment of their individual interests, strengths, and values, (2) exposure to an array of viable STEM careers, and (3) engagement in rigorous hands-on STEM activities. The project centers on a youth summer STEM enrichment program and a series of follow-up booster sessions delivered during the academic year in informal contexts to promote family engagement. Paramount to this work is the core focus on San Diego’s Five Priority Workforce Sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Information and Communications Technology, Clean Energy, Healthcare, and Biotech. Few, if any, existing projects in the Advancing Informal STEM learning portfolio have explored the potential connections between these five priority workforce sectors, informal STEM learning, and identity among predominately Hispanic youth and families engaged in a year-long, culturally responsive STEM learning and workforce focused program. If successful, the model could provide a template for the facilitation of similar efforts in the future.

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Discussion from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase (32 posts)
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 09:53 a.m.

    Welcome to STEMWoW! We thank you for your interest in our project. We are excited to hear from you and to engage in discussion. Please let us know any questions, insights, comments, ideas and suggestions you have. We would love your feedback!

  • Icon for: Sally Crissman

    Sally Crissman

    Facilitator
    Senior Science Educator
    May 13, 2019 | 12:43 p.m.

    The students in your video look energized and happily engaged in the stem activities. I like the term "booster" to describe follow-iup activities. What plans to you have to follow these students for the long-term? Are you looking at the impact of the WOW program on mentors?

    I look forward to seeing this discussion unfold.

    Sall=y 

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 12:59 p.m.


    Thank you very much for your comments and questions, Sally! Our study is focused on following the students from the participation in the two-week in the summer enrichment program through a year of follow-up booster activities. We will continue to invite the students and their families to engage in events that are open to the public that we offer at the university.


    We are very interested in the impact that STEMWoW has on the mentors. That component was not originally part of the project, but we quickly realized that it needed to be, and we started collecting data.


  • Icon for: Jason Aloisio

    Jason Aloisio

    Researcher
    May 13, 2019 | 02:36 p.m.

    This applied to our program as well. What was the experience like for your mentors? Were they trained at all? Do they just help with the 2-week program once or do they provide on-going help with boosters?

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 06:53 p.m.

    Thank you for your interest and for your great questions, Jason! 

    The mentors (we call them "pod leaders") participate in four Saturday 5.5-hour sessions, one per month, during the spring, and then they participate in one week of intensive training in the summer. The training program includes instruction on the underlying theories and practices of mentorship in general and youth mentorship in particular. pod leaders explore central questions including What is mentoring? What is near-peer mentoring? What are effective mentoring practices with underrepresented groups and Hispanic youth, specifically? What are the benefits, drawbacks, challenges and dos and don’ts of mentoring? In subsequent sessions, pod leaders explore strengths vs. deficit-based approaches to the education of underrepresented and Latino students, understand the unique challenges and opportunities of Latinx students in relation to STEM, learn pedagogical practices for supporting the STEM learning of students, learn the World of Work model, and deepen their STEM content knowledge.

    We are in the middle of preparing the second group of pod leaders. For the first year, we did not plan for the pod leaders to be involved with the booster sessions. Part of the responsibilities of the new group we are working with now is to contact families before the booster sessions and to be involved in as many of those as possible. 

    We did schedule some of the booster sessions to overlap with part of two if the training sessions for the new group of pod leaders, so they had the opportunity to engage with the families.

  • Icon for: Kelli Paul

    Kelli Paul

    Researcher
    May 13, 2019 | 03:32 p.m.

    How did you help the student participants to see that they had a place in STEM? Who were the role models and mentors that worked with students or whose stories you shared with students? The video suggested that facilitators are near -peers in the sense that they are not that much older than the student participants. What was the role of the facilitator? Did they lead activities and lessons or was there more to their role? Finally, what evidence do you have of how these facilitators influenced participants?

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 07:36 p.m.

    Thank you so much for your great questions, Kelli! Here are some answers:

    >How did you help the student participants to see that they had a place in STEM?

    There were several ways that we worked to help the participants see that they have a place in STEM. First, they had the pod leaders (mentors), some from their community, as role models. Once the students knew the pod leaders, each day one or two pod leaders gave five minute presentations to share information about them with the students (the students loved these presentations and looked forward to them). We also invited scientists from the different priority workforce sectors in San Diego, some to have conversations with small groups of students, and some to give presentations to the whole group. Additionally, they participated in STEM hands-on activities and explorations of many different types, giving them the opportunity to find some activities they particularly enjoyed. Then, their explorations of their interests, values and strengths, together with World of Work activities where they saw how these interests, values and strengths fit in different STEM careers helped them see that they can be part of STEM.

     

    >Who were the role models and mentors that worked with students or whose stories you shared with students? The video suggested that facilitators are near -peers in the sense that they are not that much older than the student participants.

    We recruited the "pod leaders" through an application process that yielded a wonderful, diverse group of college students, graduate students and teachers in the early stage of their career with an interest or studies in STEM. Other role models were faculty at the university and STEM professionals from the community, with an emphasis on finding people from the Latinx community and others who looked like the students.

     

    >What was the role of the facilitator? Did they lead activities and lessons or was there more to their role?

    Pod leaders (facilitators) work with each other and faculty mentors to develop and facilitate STEM and World of Work lessons. During the 2-week summer enrichment program they focus their attention on a small group 5-6 students, but work with all students. They:
     Engage students in activities that help them discover their individual interests, strengths, and values,
    expose them to an array of viable STEM careers, and provide hands-on STEM experience.
     Provide instructional support during the explorations, including special assistance for students needing
    extra support.
     Facilitate activities that give students the opportunity to express themselves creatively, and give them
    a sense of accomplishment that comes from mastering techniques and completing projects.
     Support physical fitness activities that help students develop leadership and teamwork skills.
     Prepare students to present their work to the families and community.
     Practice group management skills to engage all students in daily activities.

    They also:

     Administer pre- and post-assessments to the students.
     Lead a daily reflection and track student’s individual progress each day for the assigned students.
     Safely escort students to activities and ensure that they are properly hydrated and safe from the sun.
     Monitor the interest, health and safety of students and refer them to the program mentors, as needed.
     Take the initiative to ensure that students have the best experience possible.
     Exemplify a positive attitude towards learning, exploring, failing, and persevering.
     Engage with students and their families via social media throughout the year.

    >Finally, what evidence do you have of how these facilitators influenced participants?

    We are still working on data analysis, but, many of the students reported that they really loved working with the pod leaders. I think the most compelling evidence was when many of the students at the end of the program asked how they could become pod leaders themselves in the future.

  • Icon for: Amy Hackenberg

    Amy Hackenberg

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 13, 2019 | 04:07 p.m.

    Thanks for sharing this video on this inspirational project! I'm interested in the questions Kelli posed above, and also Jason's questions about how you prepared the mentors to work with the students.

    Amy

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 07:38 p.m.

    Thank you so much for your interest in STEMWoW, Amy! We responded to Kelli's and Jason's questions above. Please let us know any other questions you have.

  • Icon for: Dagen Valentine

    Dagen Valentine

    Informal Educator
    May 14, 2019 | 09:23 a.m.

    Thank you for sharing this amazing project!  Thanks for your responses to Kelli, I had similar questions!  Well done!

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Yaoran Li

    Yaoran Li

    Co-Presenter
    Managing Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 07:24 p.m.

    Thanks for your interest in STEMWoW, Dagen! 

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Odesma Dalrymple

    Odesma Dalrymple

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 10:11 a.m.

    Thank you for the great questions that have been asked thus far, and to Perla for fielding them. Here are some additional points to add to Perla's response to Kelli's questions

    How did you help the student participants to see that they had a place in STEM?

    Two additional things that were also part of our suite of strategies to help support identity formation / seeing one's place in STEM were:

    Using the UN sustainable goals as an underlying focus, and helping students to see how STEM knowledge can be applied to tackle the world's greatest challenges (many are very relatable to the students), and that they can make a positive difference to those goals starting now. 

    We first played the video of the World's Largest Lesson Part 1 at the orientation with students and their families. This was followed by a group discussion and brainstorming around the goals and their significance. (We showed the videos in both English and Spanish. Our entire orientation session was presented in both English and Spanish to ensure no family was excluded due to language.) At the end of the first week of the 2-week Summer Enrichment we replay the Part 1 video, along with the part 2 video. We then anchor the culmination project to the UN sustainable goals. Students are challenged to choose one of the goals that is of interest to them and create either a mural, cajita, or chain reaction machine to educate someone about the significance of the goal. In their final projects they are required to apply all the STEM concepts explored during the enrichment.

    Having a field trip to / tour of a historical park of great significance to the Chicano community (i.e., Chicano Park). During the tour students learn about the rich history of the park and how it came to be, and the many assets of the community that resisted oppression and lead the charge to secure and develop the beautiful space. We also showcase the application of STEM knowledge throughout the park, for example showing how a local muralist uses scaling to transfer designs from paper to the huge pillars of the park. Students are engaged in deep discussions around the application of STEM in the everyday life of their communities, and the use of STEM to facilitate social justice.

     

    Who were the role models and mentors that worked with students or whose stories you shared with students? The video suggested that facilitators are near -peers in the sense that they are not that much older than the student participants.

    We also had some high school students (high-school Pod Leaders) work along with the team of current and recent university graduates (main Pod Leaders). Thus we had high-school Pod Leaders (the nearest- near-peer mentors in terms of age) being mentored / supervised by the main Pod-Leaders. In our 1st year, i.e., last year, only one of the high-school students participated in the 1-week intensive training prior to the start of the summer enrichment. The others (about 5 others), were trained during the enrichment program by shadowing a main Pod Leader. The high-schooler that participated in the 1-week training, was able to take on more responsibilities during the enrichment program, than those that did not. The training helped tremendously to boost confidence, develop skills and techniques in working with the middle-schoolers, and deeper understanding of the STEM and World of Work concepts. We hope to have all the high-school Pod leaders go through some, if not all, of the 1-week intensive training this year.

    Many of the middle-schoolers expressed interest in becoming high-school Pod Leaders in the future.

     

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Acacia McKenna

    Acacia McKenna

    Facilitator
    Director, Science Education Competitions
    May 14, 2019 | 10:14 a.m.





    The students in the video seem to be very excited and engaged in science applications in the real world! How exciting!


    The STEM "boosters" at intervals post summer camp seem to reveal community involvement, parent involvement and engagement in scientific practices. How are you determining types of 'hands on projects' that are being conducted in San Diego’s Five Priority Workforce Sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Information and Communications Technology, Clean Energy, Healthcare, and Biotech? Is this primarily done in conjunction with the university supporters, etc? Outside of participant self-reported impact data, are there other data points that you are using to measure impact?





     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Yaoran Li

    Yaoran Li

    Co-Presenter
    Managing Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 07:46 p.m.

    Thank you, Acacia, for asking those good questions!

    We view "hands-on projects" as a medium to spark students' STEM situational interest. We link the STEM experience with the San Diego’s Five Priority Workforce Sectors through invited expert Ted Talks, expert interview, and virtual reality experience aiming to show students a variety of STEM career possibilities that they may have not been aware of previously. We hope that the situational interest along with the understanding of students' "possible self" can help students form a STEM identity or a sustained interest in STEM. 

    Regarding the impacts, we also partner with the school district to obtain students' test scores. We are also conducting focus groups with students, families, and pod leaders to further understand the program impacts.   

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Peter Tierney-Fife

    Peter Tierney-Fife

    Curriculum/Instructional Design Associate
    May 14, 2019 | 12:14 p.m.

    Thanks for sharing about STEMWow--it's exciting and important work! I appreciate your thoughtful responses on the discussion.

    Do you have any thoughts about ways connections and/or collaborations with preK-12 formal educators do/may support (or hinder) your work related to broadening participation in STEM, family involvement, and workforce development? I'm interested in what ways, if any, you are currently working with preK-12 formal educators on this project, and what potential benefits or drawbacks you think about when you consider strong(er?) connections and/or collaboration with formal educators and schools. Any thoughts related to bridging informal and formal learning are appreciated. Thank you

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Yaoran Li

    Yaoran Li

    Co-Presenter
    Managing Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 08:12 p.m.

    Great question, Peter! 

    Since this is funded by NSF-AISL grant, our work for this project is primarily in the informal learning setting. But the school district that we partner has integrated some exciting pieces on STEM and Career and Self Exploration in their curriculum which is likely to extend the summer experience to the formal settings and help students to build the connections. We are fortunate to have a partner like this. If the formal setting does not support the identified STEM interest or career, the newly formed STEM identity may be deconstructed and not likely to sustain. In an ideal world, we should leverage the collective partnerships between formal and informal educators and families to build a shared vision and a collaborative action plan to provide rich and meaningful connections between the learning activities at school, out-of-school, and at home and build a communication system to exchange feedbacks regularly to best support students' interests and learning.  

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Joanne Figueiredo

    Joanne Figueiredo

    K-12 Teacher
    May 14, 2019 | 08:31 p.m.

    Great way to stimulate interest in STEM in these young people! I love how it's modeled after an immunization protocol with boosters! Keep that STEM titer high!

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 02:22 a.m.

    Thank you very much for your interest in Project STEMWoW and for your kind words!!! <3

     

  • Sara Billey

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 15, 2019 | 11:02 a.m.

    This looks like an awesome program!   I am wondering how we can be a part of it to!  Stem-Wow North?

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Joi Spencer

    Joi Spencer

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 06:05 p.m.

    Thank you, Sara. What an exciting idea to have a North version of STEM WoW. We would love to discuss this further. One of the most exciting aspects of the program has been the partnership with one of our local school districts. Many of the students in this district would have not access to our university or its resources wee it not for STEMWoW. So, in addition to helping them build a love for STEM, they are gaining access to the campus. If you would like to speak further, we can be contacted at joi.spencer@sandiego.edu.

    Thank you so much for commenting on our video. 

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Joi Spencer

    Joi Spencer

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 12:22 p.m.

    Thank you, Sara. What an exciting idea to have a North version of STEM WoW. We would love to discuss this further. One of the most exciting aspects of the program has been the partnership with one of our local school districts. Many of the students in this district would have not access to our university or its resources wee it not for STEMWoW. So, in addition to helping them build a love for STEM, they are gaining access to the campus. If you would like to speak further, we can be contacted at joi.spencer@sandiego.edu.

    Thank you so much for commenting on our video. 

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Karletta Chief

    Karletta Chief

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 15, 2019 | 03:43 p.m.

    I thought the regular 'booster' approach was a great idea!

     
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    Perla Myers
    Joi Spencer
  • Icon for: Joi Spencer

    Joi Spencer

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 06:06 p.m.

    Thank you Karletta!

    We are constantly working to find ways to get more students to show up for the Boosters- which occur on Saturdays. Any suggestions on this would be so helpful.

    Joi

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: DeLene Hoffner

    DeLene Hoffner

    Facilitator
    Lead Teacher
    May 15, 2019 | 06:26 p.m.

    Thank you, everyone, for a fantastic dialogue!  The power of collaboration and this national discussion is empowering!  This is a gem that more people should know about.  Thank you for all your work and passion to make this project so successful!  

     

    I wondered if you have some advise to those who may be trying a similar program in their area. What have you learned the "hard way" that you may want to forewarn others about?  We all learn by doing and can improve the next time.  What would you do differently the next time?  

     

    Thank you so much!

    DeLene

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 17, 2019 | 10:20 a.m.

    Thank you very much for viewing our video and discussion and for you great question! We have learned a lot through this wonderful interdisciplinary project. Some of the lessons we have learned the "hard way" come from the fact that our STEMWoW team is composed of 5 very enthusiastic people from different units on campus (the Teaching and Learning Department in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education, and the Mathematics Department in the College of Arts and Sciences), which is also the reason this has been such an amazing experience. It's been a pleasure working with my colleagues from different areas, and I've enjoyed stretching and growing with them. Two lessons:

    1) Less is more: Last summer we ran our 2-week summer experience twice. Each team member provides a rich contribution to the project, so, when we first created the schedule for our 2-week summer enrichment experience, we had a very packed schedule. Each activity had a lot of possibility for much deeper exploration than we could do in the scheduled time, and we needed to make many adjustments to our days. For the second iteration in the first summer, we knew what to expect, so there were fewer adjustments. As we prepare for this summer, we are working on having fewer, more integrated activities so the students can delve deeper into each of those.

    2) Be clear in communication: There were times when we were not precise about who was responsible for taking care of a particular task (who is in charge of bringing the iPads, for example), and we had to scramble at the last moment. 

  • Icon for: Ellis Bell

    Ellis Bell

    Researcher
    May 15, 2019 | 07:17 p.m.

    This is a great program- do you have ways of assessing the long term impact of participation in STEMWoW

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Perla Myers

    Perla Myers

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 17, 2019 | 10:24 a.m.

    Thank you so much for your awesome question, Ellis! We do not currently have a plan for assessing long term impact of participation in STEMWoW. We do plan to continue to invite the participating families to future events and to communicate with the Chula Vista School District.

  • Icon for: Pamela Silvers

    Pamela Silvers

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 17, 2019 | 01:19 p.m.

    I really liked the comment from a student who didn't know "design" is part of STEM.  Thank you for offering a program that expands horizons

     

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Vitaliy Popov

    Vitaliy Popov

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Director of Research
    May 17, 2019 | 01:46 p.m.

    Thank you very much for viewing our video! I absolutely agree with you that Exposure, exposure, exposure.... to high quality educational experiences is a key to ignite and/or fuel students' interest in STEM fields. Students can't develop interest in or knowledge of something that they have not been introduced to.

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Julie Yu

    Julie Yu

    Senior Scientist
    May 17, 2019 | 05:28 p.m.

    Thanks for sharing your project. I loved hearing the kids acknowledge the value of representation and how you intentionally built that into your program. Also want to call out and appreciate your offering a version of this video in Spanish. ¡Excelente!

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Vitaliy Popov

    Vitaliy Popov

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Director of Research
    May 17, 2019 | 05:46 p.m.

    Thank you Julie for your kinds words of appreciation. They mean a lot to us....this project is a huge team effort and we look forward to sharing our learned lessons and findings with students, parents, fellow researchers and others who are interested in this type of programs.

     
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    Perla Myers
  • Icon for: Jessica Bell

    Jessica Bell

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 20, 2019 | 02:17 p.m.

    Amazing project!  Congratulations on the clear impact your project has had on students.  Could you comment on how you developed relationships with your community?  Did you work through a campus coordinator or directly with K-12 schools and other non-profits serving this community?  If you used several approaches, what did you feel was most effective?

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.