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1. Choosing Self-Care and Preservation: Examining Black Women STEM Faculty’s Decision to Pursue Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education Programming

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--43195  

   Pearson, Meaghan; Shekhar, Prateek; Handley, Jacqueline; Mondisa, Joi-lynn (June 2023, ASEE Conferences)

   Despite recent STEM diversity initiatives, there still exists structural barriers on who can pursue their STEM aspirations. The lack of diversity in STEM fields hinders individual selfactualization and economic advancement as well as STEM innovation efforts. Notably, Black women remain underrepresented in STEM higher education and academic entrepreneurship. The goal of this project is to increase the understanding of the entrepreneurship-related experiences of Black women in STEM higher education. Specifically, we examine how the erasure and marginalization of Black women in STEM academic entrepreneurship contributes to their minoritization in STEM. In doing so, we seek to identify ways to improve their experiences in STEM higher education and entrepreneurial spaces. Relying on Collins’ (1990) domains of power framework, the following question guides the study: To what extent do everyday encounters and practices of marginalization in STEM higher education and entrepreneurial education spaces shape Black women’s engagement in STEM entrepreneurial education programming? To answer this question, we conducted semi-structured interviews (n=7) of Black women faculty in STEM higher education who have engaged or not engaged in entrepreneurship education programming. These conversations reveal the various ways Black women navigate in and outside of entrepreneurship education programming to innovate their fields. 

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2. Exploring Families’ Science Talk Using a Mobile Augmented Reality App: An Epistemic Network Analysis Method

   https://doi.org/10.22318/cscl2024.513971  

   Li, Leqi; Land, Susan M; Zimmerman, Heather Toomey; Xu, Yanping (June 2024, International Society of the Learning Sciences)

   Clarke-Midura, J; Kollar, I; Gu, X; D'Angelo, C (Ed.)

   This research applies the Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) method to analyze 11 families’ science talk as they engaged with mobile augmented reality (AR) to learn about cave formation. Results show that the design features in the Cave Explorers mobile AR app triggered four types of families’ science talk. Families with high pre-post gain knowledge scores of the app content engaged in more frequent and detailed describing and identification talk styles when encountering the science content and the place-based observation prompts. Children in these families read more science content aloud and used it to make sense of their observations in the cave exhibit by making explanations and inferences. 

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3. Using worked examples to promote explanations of fractions concepts: A formative pilot study

   https://doi.org/10.1177/09388982241230131  

   Wang, Amber_Y; Schumacher, Robin_F; Dougherty, Barbara_J; Wavell, Samantha; Dimino, Joseph; Gersten, Russell (February 2024, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice)

   This pilot study examined the feasibility of using worked examples as a mechanism to improve verbal explanations of fractions concepts among Grade 5 students with mathematics difficulties in a small-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) before scaling up to a large-scale RCT. Students ( N = 49) were randomly assigned to a business-as-usual (BAU) comparison group and to two variants of intervention. One intervention condition received both correct and incorrect worked example solutions, the other received correct solutions only. On a measure of verbal explanations, intervention students significantly outperformed students in BAU. Furthermore, students who received both correct and incorrect solutions significantly outperformed students who received correct solutions only on verbal explanations. On fractions proficiency outcomes, results were not significant between intervention and BAU or between the two intervention groups; however, positive findings demonstrate promise for using worked examples to elicit and develop students’ verbal explanations of fractions concepts. 

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4. Brief Interventions Influence the Quantity and Quality of Caregiver-Child Conversations in an Everyday Context

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645788  

   Shivaram, Apoorva; Chavez, Yaritza; Anderson, Erin; Fritz, Autumn; Jackson, Ryleigh; Edwards, Louisa; Powers, Shelley; Libertus, Melissa; Hespos, Susan (June 2021, Frontiers in Psychology)

   null (Ed.)

   Reading and arithmetic are difficult cognitive feats for children to master and youth from low-income communities are often less “school ready” in terms of letter and number recognition skills ( Lee and Burkam, 2002 ). One way to prepare children for school is by encouraging caregivers to engage children in conversations about academically-relevant concepts by using numbers, recognizing shapes, and naming colors ( Levine et al., 2010 ; Fisher et al., 2013 ). Previous research shows that caregiver-child conversations about these topics rarely take place in everyday contexts ( Hassinger-Das et al., 2018 ), but interventions designed to encourage such conversations, like displaying signs in a grocery store, have resulted in significant increases in caregiver-child conversations ( Ridge et al., 2015 ; Hanner et al., 2019 ). We investigated whether a similar brief intervention could change caregiver-child conversations in an everyday context. We observed 212 families in a volunteer-run facility where people who are food-insecure can select food from available donations. Volunteers greet all the clients as they pass through the aisles, offer food, and restock the shelves as needed. About 25% of the clients have children with them and our data consist of observations of the caregiver-child conversations with 2- to 10-year-old children. Half of the observation days consisted of a baseline condition in which the quantity and quality of caregiver-child conversation was observed as the client went through aisles where no signs were displayed, and volunteers merely greeted the clients. The other half of the observation days consisted of a brief intervention where signs were displayed (signs-up condition), where, volunteers greeted the clients and pointed out that there were signs displayed to entertain the children if they were interested. In addition, there was a within-subject manipulation for the intervention condition where each family interacted with two different categories of signs. Half of the signs had academically-relevant content and the other half had non-academically-relevant content. The results demonstrate that the brief intervention used in the signs-up condition increases the quantity of conversation between a caregiver and child. In addition, signs with academically-relevant content increases the quality of the conversation. These findings provide further evidence that brief interventions in an everyday context can change the caregiver-child conversation. Specifically, signs with academically-relevant content may promote school readiness. 

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5. Virtual Teaching Together: engaging parents and young children in STEM activities

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1334195  

   Zucker, Tricia A; Mesa, Michael P; Assel, Michael A; McCallum, Cheryl; DeMaster, Dana (February 2024, Frontiers in Psychology)

   IntroductionEarly informal learning experiences are essential for sparking long-term interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In a prior study, we found more promising parent involvement outcomes when families of young children were provided with STEM family education events along with home STEM activity kits compared to providing workshops alone. This study was a conceptual replication using the same program—Teaching Together STEM—to deliver educational workshops plus home activity kits; however, we varied the delivery method by using virtual “funshops” to evaluate if parents perceived this modality as feasible and useful. MethodsMuseum informal science educators introduced four units via virtual video chat sessions linked to 12 hands-on STEM activities that were mailed to families randomly assigned to the treatment group. Half of the families were assigned to a waitlist control group that received a portion of the virtual program after the posttest. Participants included 60 families with children aged 3 to 5 years from diverse linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds. ResultsOur results indicate no significant group differences in the primary outcome of parents’ involvement in informal STEM but a small, positive effect size (ES = 0.18) that was similar in magnitude to the prior, in-person study. Although parents mostly perceived the remote delivery as convenient and the materials as engaging for their child, there were no significant program impacts on children’s general science interests (ES = −0.19). DiscussionDespite the convenience, parents reported time was a barrier to doing STEM activities at home. Parents with lower education levels were less likely to attend, suggesting virtual approaches are not sufficient for ensuring broad access to family engagement programs for populations underrepresented in STEM. 

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