What Works for Girls in Out-of-School STEM?

Presented at The CoCo STEM Kick-Off Conference

November 28, 2012

Heather Thiry, Ph.D.with Tim Archie, M.S. and Sandra Laursen, Ph.D

University of Colorado, Boulder This work is supported by NSF (DRL-1010953)

Why are out-of-school time (OST) venues ideal places for girls to engage with STEM?

What is happening in the national landscape of OST STEM programs? What should be happening?

Overview

Barriers for Girls and Women in STEM Recruitment issues: Stereotypes and cultural expectations Lack of role models Lack of encouragement

Retention issues:‣ Work-life balance ‣ Isolation ‣ Bias and discrimination

Challenge assumptions about who can be a scientist and what it means to do science (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2010; Rahm, 2008)

Spark interest and engagement (Freidman & Quinn, 2006)

‣Provide support; relationships with adults (Fadigan & Hammrich, 2004; Walker, Wahl & Rivas, 2005)

Before After

Why is Out-of-School Time (OST) Science Good for Girls?

Mapping Out-of-School Time Science (MOST-Science) Survey of over 400 OST-STEM programs serving older youth Over 50 interviews with leaders in the OST STEM field

What are kids doing in OST STEM programs and who is participating?

Girls are well represented in OST STEM programs

Organization type Girls Asian Black Latino Multi-racial

Native American White

Aquarium, zoo, planetarium 60.6 12.5 14.8 11.8 4.6 0.9 58.4

Museum or science center 57.9 9.6 25.6 16.9 6.0 2.2 49.0

Non-profit organization 56.2 8.3 35.6 33.7 8.2 3.0 26.6

National youth organization 82.3 3.3 19.6 28.3 6.6 3.7 48.4

University or college 57.8 11.6 19.9 17.5 4.9 3.2 49.3

K-12 school district 40.2 18.6 10.2 13.6 5.7 0.5 61.5

Private sector organization 40.0 23.7 9.7 10.4 11.8 2.6 49.8

Government lab 42.6 23.3 7.0 10.0 6.0 0.3 45.4

All organization types 56.1 12.0 22.5 20.8 6.2 2.4 46.9

Who is being recruited into OST STEM?

Government lab

Private sector organization

K-12 school district

University or college

National youth organization

Non-profit organization

Museum or science center

Aquarium, zoo, planetarium

All organization types

0% 10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%0%

27%

23%

13%

5%

18%

15%

10%

15%

25%

36%

25%

17%

0%

21%

19%

13%

18%

12%

27%

36%

26%

10%

49%

33%

16%

33%

12%

36%

36%

50%

67%

50%

33%

19%

43%

Girls Underrepresented minorities Gifted and talented Youth with disabilities

What strategies work for recruiting girls? (NSF ATE survey results, 2008)

• Socially-oriented activities • Involve parents • Provide financial resources

Highly Effective

• Classroom visits • Career fairs, science fairs • Online marketing, social media

Moderately effective

• Brochures, flyers • Advertising• Mass mailing

Ineffective

Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Minorities (Martinez et al, 2012)

Recruiting• Develop community partnerships• Involve families• Provide financial resources

Retaining• Culturally relevant programming • Culturally competent staff

Recruiting and Retaining Students with Disabilities (Martin et al., 2011)

Develop K-12 partnerships

Create materials that suggest students are capable of STEM careers

Create a climate that values and affirms diversity

Cooperative learning Hands-on learning Real-world problems or context Exposure to STEM Careers Peer and adult role models Youth development framework

What works for girls in OST STEM programs?

Many programs follow best practices for learning in out-of-school time

Extended research or design

Opportunity to present to community

Communication skill-building

Exposure to STEM Careers

Learning specific STEM concepts

Personal/social-skill building

Hands-on STEM activities

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

48%

56%

75%

84%

85%

89%

93%

42%

60%

77%

90%

84%

91%

91%

Girl-Serving Programs onlyAll programs

What is working? Best practices are being utilized by many programs

What isn’t working?Students with disabilities are underserved in OST STEM

How do we increase the participation of girls and minorities?

Developing community partnerships, involving families, and providing financial resources

Girls and out-of-school science