301 - Instrument Development: Effects of OST Experiences on Racially & Ethnically Minoritized Youths' STEM Career Interest

Abstract Information: Increasing the diversity of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce hinges on understanding the impact of the many related, pre-college experiences of the nation’s youth. While formal preparation, such as high school course-taking, has a major influence, research has shown that out-of-school-time activities have a much larger role in shaping the attitudes, identity, and career interests of students, particularly those who are members of groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields. A wide range of both innovative adult-led (science clubs, internships, museum-going, competitions, summer camps) and personal-choice (hobbies, family talk, games, simulations, social media, online courses) options exist. This project studies the variety and availability such experiences to pre-college students. The project is particularly interested in how community cultural capital is leveraged through informal activities and experiences, drawing upon the funds of knowledge that culturally diverse students bring to their STEM experiences (e.g., high aspirations, multilingual facility, building of sustaining social networks, and the capacity to challenge negative stereotyping). Understanding the ecology of precollege influencers and the hypotheses on which they are based, along with providing initial measures of the efficacy of multiple pathways attempting to broaden participation of students from underrepresented groups in STEM majors and careers, will aid decision-making that will maximize the strategic impact of federal and local efforts.
The project first collected hypotheses from the wide variety of stakeholders (educators, researchers, and students) about the kinds of experiences that make a difference in increasing students’ STEM identity and career interest. Identifying the descriptive attributes that characterize opportunities across individual programs and validating a multi-part instrument to ascertain student experiences was carried out through a review of relevant literature, surveying stakeholders using crowdsourced platforms, and through in-depth interviews with over 100 OST providers. A sample of over 1,000 students from 2- and 4-year college and universities, drawn from minority-serving institutions, such as Historically Black Colleges and Hispanic Serving Institutions, served to establish the validity and reliability of the derived instrument and provided estimates of the availability and frequency of involvement. Psychometric methods and factor analysis guided the team in combining related variables into indices that reflect underlying constructs. Propensity score weighting were employed for estimating effects when exposure to certain OST activities is confounded with other factors. Path models and structural equation models (SEM) were used to build models that use causal or time related variables, for instance, students’ career interests at different times in their pre-college experience. Through a poster, initial findings of the study will be presented and a valid and reliable instrument (a survey that contains 29 multi-part questions and takes almost all students only 20 minutes to complete) will be presented for evaluators use for their own projects.