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Title: Advancing Career Aspirations in STEM Fields through Co-Design and XR-Enabled Educational Delivery Models
By 2028, the U.S. will have the largest percentage of foreign-born individuals since 1850 with non-Hispanic whites in the 18-29 age group in the minority. These changing demographics require a major shift in education practices that will affect these residents' ability to continue their education, recruit for civilian careers, enlist in the military, and simply navigate in a digital society. These residents have a range of challenges from language barriers to lack of access to the Internet and mobile devices that must be addressed. Extended Reality (XR) technologies, interwoven with learning theories, offer solutions to these challenges. This paper presents a study of XR-enabled educational delivery models with the community of Storm Lake to enhance students’ aspirations for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers. Storm Lake is a rural Iowa community with a large low-skilled workforce employed in the agroindustrial sector and a K-12 student population that is 64% English Language Learners and 85% students of color. The research began with co-design activities (formal process actively involving all stakeholders) with teachers, students, and families in the community without technology use. Analyzed study data showed that traditional technology development and deployment practices would not effectively educate or inspire students on their own. For example, providing teachers with XR devices creates a training burden to properly operate, often resulting in unused technology. Co-design activities, with place-based challenges in XR environments, were effective for students to learn STEM-related content. Co-design activities concluded in a three-day summer workshop for 10 high school students. At the workshop, students defined place- based challenge(s) in their community and implemented an XR technological solution in software and hardware. Assessments showed positive results from the students on several measures, including evidence that the workshop contributed to seven of the 10 applying to a university in a STEM major.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2244586
PAR ID:
10585442
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
2023 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC)
Date Published:
Page Range / eLocation ID:
23301
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
Orlando, FL
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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