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  1. Bertley, Frederic; Kemper, Rebecca; Poklar, Abigail; Heimlich, Joe (Ed.)
    Field trips are a part of many students’ school experiences. Field trips are typically viewed as enjoyable because they provide a chance for students to see something new or different and because they provide an opportunity to be outside of the normal school routine. At the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (Griffin MSI) we offer several fieldtrip options, including the opportunity to participate in a learning lab—a hands-on museum classroom experience focused on a science topic. In the research study discussed here, we share how we plan to explore the specific effects of attending a medical learning lab on students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career interests and the insights we gained from reflecting on the baseline data. While we have internal and external evaluation reports of the value of learning labs, we do not yet have strong indicators to show the impact of our programs. Understanding our impact is especially important given that Griffin MSI welcomes over 200,000 students every year and about 25% of the U.S. workforce is engaged in a STEM job (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2023). As a cultural institution, we have the opportunity to engage students, especially those from racial and ethnic identities underrepresented in the STEM workforce, and foster their early interest in STEM careers. In this article, I will describe learning labs at Griffin MSI, share our research questions, explain the importance of our methodology, and explore what the baseline data tells us about our student participants. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 17, 2026