About the STEM Interest and Engagement (STEM IE) Project
The main purpose of this in-depth research study was to create a toolkit applying the findings in a way that would be useful for practitioners. This website serves as a toolkit for those who work with young adolescents in Informal STEM-Learning (ISL) environments and for those who conduct professional development with them. ISL environments differ from classroom environments in some important ways that might spark and expand youth interest in STEM like being more active and ungraded. With the STEM IE study, we set out to understand how programs might accomplish that.
We wanted to capture the experiences that youth have in summer ISL programs and determine how program quality and different types of activities and settings fostered youth engagement, supported youth agency, made content more relevant for them, and promoted their sense that they were learning. We were also interested in how these experiences contributed to youth's interest including their future goals and aspirations in STEM.
The central goals of the STEM IE project were to:
- Learn about activities and practices that promoted engagement and positive development in young adolescents attending STEM summer programs.
- Communicate that information to activity leaders through the toolkit which appears on this website. The toolkit was created to be useful for the people who work directly with youth in informal STEM programs. It presents background information about our research approach and findings, describes and provides examples of activities and practices that promote youth engagement and foster youth development in summer STEM programs, and provides professional development materials for group sessions and/or for self-study, as well as resources like video exemplars, links to practical ideas and tools, and reading recommendations for further learning.
This project was accomplished through the efforts of multiple partners. Researchers, facilitators, and an advisory board were instrumental in the success of this project funded by the National Science Foundation.
