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Presents research investigating youth data literacy at the public library. The Data Literacy with, for, and by Youth project is framed by principles of participatory design, and asks, how might an informal STEM learning environment such as the public library, support the development of the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that young people need for them to take charge of their data lives, from data creation to data use – to be, in short, data literate. The problem of how to approach something as complex as data literacy in the voluntary drop-in setting of informal, after-school sites of learning - the public library being one such place - guides this study. The aim of the project is to design, build, test, and evolve theory and practice around informal data literacy education alongside youth, with the goal of building a holistic, humanistic, and youth-oriented model of data literacy which incorporates social-awareness, critical approaches, and “goodness of fit” into STEM learning about data. 

Abstract The paper examines the concept of participation in co‐design practices with children and youth. Rooted inParticipatory DesignandParticipatory Action Researchframeworks, the paper draws from multi‐disciplinary literature to survey existing definitions of the relationships, roles, and types of human interactions in participatory co‐design. The paper advocates for the active role of children and youth in the co‐design process and presents models of youth participation. The paper highlights the importance of understanding and clearly communicating various degrees of participation, with the ultimate goal of empowering youth and involving them in brainstorming, planning, decision‐making, and interpretation stages of the design process. We introduce the concept ofconscious co‐designand the need to reflect on the design process at a meta level inParticipatory DesignandParticipatory Action Research. 

This paper is the culmination of several meaning-making activities between an external researcher, PES practitioners, and social scientist researchers who considered the unique contributions that can be made through RPPs on PES (that is, research-practice partnerships on public engagement with science). Based on the experiences from three RPP projects, the group noted that the PES context may be particularly suited to RPPs, and identified the importance of working as thinking-partners who support reciprocal decision-making. Recommendations are made in support of using these approaches to advance practical knowledge-building and reduce shared frustrations about the disconnect between research and practice in PES. 

This paper is the culmination of several meaning-making activities between an external researcher, PES practitioners, and social scientist researchers who considered the unique contributions that can be made through RPPs on PES (that is, research-practice partnerships on public engagement with science). Based on the experiences from three RPP projects, the group noted that the PES context may be particularly suited to RPPs, and identified the importance of working as thinking-partners who support reciprocal decision-making. Recommendations are made in support of using these approaches to advance practical knowledge-building and reduce shared frustrations about the disconnect between research and practice in PES.