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When COVID-19 shut down in-person programs across the world in 2020, we (the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab)) as practitioners were in unknown territory. This paper outlines the structure of a 10-week online Summer Exploration Series (SES) program along with the evaluation performed by staff at the MagLab in 2020. The goal of the SES program was to increase youth's interest in STEM and knowledge of STEM careers relevant to materials science. Each week included live and asynchronous components. All of the participants (n=86) rated the program as above average or higher, crediting the program with teaching them about new STEM careers/topics and increasing their interest in STEM. Our evaluation indicated that the live sessions, particularly those that offered more opportunities for interaction, were rated higher than the asynchronous sessions, providing evidence to the benefits of live - even if online -- sessions on increasing interest in STEM. The lessons learned through the program can inform other organizations as we continue into the new normal.

Women and girls, particularly women and girls of color, remain underrepresented in STEM disciplines. This underrepresentation begins as early as late elementary school age. Educators, particularly those in informal STEM education, can help address gender inequity in STEM by understanding how research can be translated into actionable strategies. This article summarizes research on gender equitable practices for middle school girls in the last decade and addresses the disconnect between research and practice by presenting the findings in a way that educators can immediately act on. The research falls into six strategies that have demonstrated positive influences on gender inequity in STEM education: (1) connecting STEM experiences to girls' lives; (2) supporting girls as they investigate questions and solve problems using STEM practices; (3) empowering girls to embrace struggle, overcome challenges, and increase self-confidence in STEM; (4) encouraging girls to identify and challenge STEM stereotypes; (5) emphasizing that STEM is collaborative, social, and community-oriented; (6) providing opportunities for girls to interact with and learn from diverse STEM role models. Our review highlights that each of these strategies are important to developing positive STEM identities in girls, particularly girls of color, which can help them to bridge the STEM gender and racial gap.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identity has become a popular lens in science education research. However, few studies have looked at how using the interpersonal, structural, cultural, and disciplinary domains of power sheds light on how women of color differently navigate the various cultures of formal and informal schooling as well as college science and math departments. This paper uses narrative inquiry methodology to examine how a young Black woman constructs science and math identities through stories about her previous experiences becoming a science and math person. By also framing it within intersectionality and employing a storied-identity lens, this study provides insight into how stories that shape identities inform her science and math identities. Specifically, this study looked at how she navigated the emotions and social experiences that fostered an interwoven storied science, math, and racial identity across different times, spaces, and settings. It highlights how a strong sense of belonging in her science and math trajectories was positively influenced through various sources and moments of recognition from community influences (e.g., family, peers, and faculty) and structural disruptions (e.g., the HBCU she attended and STEM camp). Despite negative emotions of self-doubt and frustration were present when her science, math, racial, and smart student identities came into conflict, she leveraged the positive emotions of joy and pride in her interwoven science and math storylines, which strengthened not only her science and math identities but also her racial identity. The study underscores the importance of leveraging counter-narratives of resilience as a resilience strategy but also practicing acceptance and self-compassion when navigating tensions between racial, science, math, and smart-student identities for women of color in STEM. The study's conclusions add to the call for structural changes within K-12 and higher education that are crucial for equity goals within STEM education.

Computing fields are foundational to most STEM disciplines and the only STEM discipline to show a consistent decline in women's representation since 1990, making it an important field for STEM educators to study. The explanation for the underrepresentation of women and girls in computing is twofold: a sense that they do not fit within the stereotypes associated with computing and a lack of access to computer games and technologies beginning at an early age (Richard, 2016). Informal coding education programs are uniquely situated to counter these hurdles because they can offer additional resources and time for engagement in specially designed activities developed around best practices to improve girls coding identities (National Research Council [NRC], 2009). We draw upon research by Calabrese Barton et al. (2013) and Carlone and Johnson's (2007) research as a lens by which to examine girls' coding identity work in an informal coding education setting--a concept not currently defined in the science education research literature. In this paper, we describe the coding identity trajectories of three middle school girls who participated in a coding camp: Lilly, Victoria, and Beth. Our results provide a conceptual framework that will guide future research on coding identity that better encompasses the role of recognition by educators and peers on youth's coding identity development. This framework can be used to guide broader science education identity research, particularly as it applies to informal STEM education settings that work to engage students, especially girls, across the STEM spectrum.

Current reform efforts in science place a premium on student sense making and participation in the practices of science. Given the disparity between these activities and current teaching practices, effective means of professional development around such practices must be identified. We use a close examination of 106 science teachers participating in Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) to identify, through structural equation modeling, the essential features in supporting teacher learning from these experiences. Findings suggest that participation in RET shape science teacher practice and beliefs, which in turn influence practice. Essential features of RET include engaging teachers socially in the research context and in research projects that are personally relevant to them. The model suggests ways to maximize the professional development potential of RET intended to support engagement in disciplinary practices.

In this study, we argue that current conceptual frameworks used to understand how novices make sense of science ignore K-12 teachers' understanding to a detriment. If teachers are supposed to translate the content, context, and culture of science to their students, then it is important for researchers and policymakers to understand how this happens. Communities of science practice (COSP) research identify the ways in which novices make sense of the practices of science within a space where they interact with, observe, and are affected by other members at varying levels of legitimacy. In brief, K-12 students are rarely exposed to the COSP; therefore, teachers must translate these cultural pieces to their students while simultaneously teaching the content and practices of sciences. We chose to focus on teachers who participated in a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program. The RET program served as a brief exposure to a COSP for these teachers. The goal for our study was to develop a conceptual framework to study teachers' experiences as spectator novices within a RET program. Spectator novice was the term we used to define teachers' roles as novices moving toward legitimacy within the COSP but with a different goal--that of observing the culture and translating it to their students--from science undergraduate and graduate students who are attempting to become full legitimate participants within the community. Through interviews with teachers, we developed a conceptual framework that can guide future research on the unique experiences of teachers as "spectator novices" within the COSP.

Both K‐12 schools and STEM disciplines are embedded in White supremacy and exclusion, making it that much harder for Black women to maintain an interest and sense of belonging in STEM. Through a Critical Race Feminism methodology, we tell the counterstories of our two co‐authors, two Black women, over the course of their lives. Through these counterstories (stories that run counter to normative stories of STEM as male and White), Kelli and Samantha show us how they negotiated and maintained a sense of belonging in STEM even through moments of self‐doubt in their STEM trajectory. These negotiations allowed them to carve a space for themselves within STEM. A key finding from these counterstories was the resilience both women developed through their participation in counterspaces and support from family and teachers that helped them develop pride in their STEM identity trajectories. Our study adds to the research on Black women's journeys in STEM by describing resilience strategies that our authors were forced to develop in response to White supremacy and how they were able to maintain their STEM identity by creating a counterstory that allowed them to maintain their sense of belonging within STEM. And yet, we conclude by asking if resilience is enough since both women questioned their authentic and valued place in their respective STEM disciplines because of the dominant storyline of STEM as White and male. Their stories reveal the deeper truth that change is needed in STEM to empower students of color to see themselves as not just tolerated but valued members of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there are policy debates regarding the efficacy and legality of single sex formal and informal education programs. This issue is particularly poignant in science education due to the historical marginalization of women in these fields. This marginalization has resulted in women being positioned as a stigmatized group within many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields. Research points to adolescence as the age where this sense of marginalization begins to develop. As a result, policy responses have utilized various frameworks such as: increased access for women, changing pedagogy to address women's learning styles, changing the language and culture of science to prevent marginalization of stigmatized groups, and finally exploring the role that individual identity plays in the marginalization of women. This study adds to the policy debate as it applies to single sex education by comparing middle school participants' STEM identity formation during two informal science learning environments (an all girls' STEM camp and a co-educational STEM camp). Additionally, this study focuses on the influence of camp activities within two informal science education programs: particularly the provision of role models and authentic STEM research activities, as means to improve STEM identity and make these fields relevant to the lives of middle school students. The results indicate that both camps improved girls' STEM identities. These findings suggest that the single sex environment is not as important to STEM identity as the pedagogy used within the program.

This study focuses on the mentor relationships between science teachers and their scientist mentors in a summer Research Experience for Teachers program at a United States national laboratory facility. Using mixed methods, the authors surveyed and interviewed (semi-structured) the eleven participating teachers before and after the program. The authors also observed the teachers with their mentors each week. During these observations, three different types of mentoring relationships were observed. The authors highlight these through case studies of three teachers, each of whom experienced one of the three relationships. These case studies include their pre and post survey and interview data as well as classroom observations following the program. The results show that the mentoring relationship positively influences teachers' views of scientific inquiry. The participating teachers felt a sense of membership in the science community as a result of the mentoring they received from their scientists and/or other members of their research group (i.e. graduate students, post doctorates). The three cases demonstrate that teachers felt a higher sense of ownership when they were "discovering" information that was new to their scientist or "translating" their work. All three types of mentoring relationships improved teachers' understanding of scientific inquiry, which can translate into the classroom.

This article reports findings from a two-year case study of teachers in a single public high school. Data were gathered and analyzed using a conceptual framework that conceived of alienation as a set of five sub-constructs: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation, and estrangement. Findings suggested that teachers experienced each of these forms of alienation, but that each individual teacher interpreted them in a unique manner. Moreover, data suggested that for individual teachers, experiences of alienation varied from situation to situation and evolved over time. The authors concluded that teacher alienation was a fluid phenomenon, a seemingly basic assertion that has profound implications for teachers, administrators, and policymakers as they consider adopting or implementing reform initiatives. (Contains 1 note.)

Having been adopted by legislatures in over a dozen states, postsecondary merit aid programs are largely concentrated in the southeastern United States. The observed clustering pattern seems to support previous evidence that policies spread between proximate states, a phenomenon referred to by political scientists as policy diffusion. Often, however, policy diffusion is not complete, and one or more states in a region fail to adopt. By interviewing policymakers throughout the southeastern United States--including actors in the three states in the region without merit aid--the study addresses the following question: Why do diffusion pressures lead to adoption in some states but not in others? Studying state 'hold-outs' promises not only to uncover the reasons for failed legislation in specific state contexts but also to better our understanding of the limits of diffusion theory. KEY WORDS: political analysis, innovation, diffusion, policy process, Introduction Research supports that public policies diffuse across the American states (Berry & Baybeck, 2005; Berry & Berry, 1990; Mooney & Lee, 1995). That is to say, policies seem to [...]

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers are some of the highest paying options for students today. In addition, nations with strong STEM workforces and research capabilities are more competitive in the global market. One way to improve the number of people working in STEM is to improve the representation of underrepresented groups, like women, in these fields. Research demonstrates that for girls and women to persist, they must identify with their STEM career of interest which can be difficult for fields that have been historically, and remain, dominated by men. This study focuses on the role that an informal STEM education camp in the United States has on middle school girls' STEM identity. The authors conducted a linear regression and hierarchical linear modelling analysis to determine the role that the program had on 145 female participants. The results indicate that a crucial component to STEM identity is girls' levels of openness to challenge. The study indicates that informal STEM education programs should provide students with chances to be challenged in a way where they see these challenges as opportunities to grow rather than opportunities to fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science researchers argue that students' science and engineering (SE) identity can be improved if they are exposed to scientists and engineers and participate in real world applications within these SE fields (Brickhouse et al., 2000; Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Painter et al., 2006; Polman & Miller, 2010). This type of exposure is particularly important for women and minorities because they are currently underrepresented within these fields and are not often exposed to role models. This study addresses the issues related to the SE identity negotiations of girls and racial minorities through a comparative case study, wherein three adolescent students' SE identity trajectories are studied. This study shows the complexity of how students can develop their SE identity both socially and individually. In particular, it highlights how these social and individual interactions occur on a personal level and can shift due to small interventions and particular interactions. This study also adds to current identity frameworks by using them in informal SE education settings where they have not been used before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fewer women choose to stay in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. This decision-making process is influenced by a variety of external factors (parental support, success in science and math classes) and internal factors (reactions to grades, identifying with perceptions of STEM professionals). This study focuses on women's internalizations and the influences of one specific external factor -a single-sex program aimed at sustaining STEM persistence at the university level. This study used a narrative life history methodology to examine the influences that a single-sex program at a United States university had on twenty-six undergraduate women's STEM career choices. The study examined the criticisms aimed at single-sex programs (increase stereotypes, provide programming that is separate and not equal). The results of the study did not support these criticisms. However, the findings also did not unequivocally demonstrate the positive impacts of single-sex programs on the persistence of women in university-level STEM programs. The results highlight how women's persistence in STEM programs is related to the identity negotiations they undergo and the support networks they find, both of which are affected by the culture of STEM departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides an in-depth picture of five university level women who entered a large American university with a declared science/engineering major. Comparative case studies are used to highlight how predictive factors regarding persistence in the current literature do not cover the unique and varying experiences that lead to women This study provides an in-depth picture of five university level women who entered a large American university with a declared science/engineering major. Comparative case studies are used to highlight how predictive factors regarding persistence in the current literature do not cover the unique and varying experiences that lead to women's decisions to stay or leave their science/engineering majors. Specifically this study focuses on the following predictive factors: parental support and education level; pre-college preparation; ability to identify with the culture of science and engineering. These narrative life histories delve in to each woman's perceptions of her experiences, thereby revealing their personal stories of identity within the science and engineering cultures. This study highlights a new way of viewing coping strategies that enable persistence and provides evidence for the role that science/engineering departments play in leavers' trajectories. s decisions to stay or leave their science/engineering majors. Specifically this study focuses on the following predictive factors: parental support and education level; pre-college preparation; ability to identify with the culture of science and engineering. These narrative life histories delve in to each woman's perceptions of her experiences, thereby revealing their personal stories of identity within the science and engineering cultures. This study highlights a new way of viewing coping strategies that enable persistence and provides evidence for the role that science/engineering departments play in leavers' trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]