Exploring “STEM-Readiness” in Public Libraries

Shtivelband, Annette; Spahr, Kimberly S.; Jakubowski, Robert; LaConte, K.; Holland, Anne E

doi:10.1080/01930826.2019.1661744

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Their predominance and ability to provide access to in-person programming and digital resources position libraries as critical contributors to the ILI community and landscape (27,28). When other ILIs, such as museums and botanical gardens, are further away, libraries can facilitate STEM learning in these underserved communities (27)(28)(29).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial inequalities leave micropolitan areas and Indigenous populations underserved by informal STEM learning institutions

et al. 2020

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Informal learning institutions (ILIs) create opportunities to increase public understanding of science and promote increased inclusion of groups underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers but are not equally distributed across the United States. We explore geographic gaps in the ILI landscape and identify three groups of underserved counties based on the interaction between population density and poverty percentage. Among ILIs, National Park Service lands, biological field stations, and marine laboratories occur in areas with the fewest sites for informal learning opportunities and have the greatest potential to reach underserved populations, particularly in rural or high poverty counties. Most counties that are underserved by ILIs occur in the Great Plains, the southeast, and the northwest. Furthermore, these counties have higher Indigenous populations who are underrepresented in STEM careers. These unexpected geographic gaps represent opportunities for investments in ILI offerings through collaborations and expansion of existing resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial inequalities leave micropolitan areas and Indigenous populations underserved by informal STEM learning institutions

et al. 2020

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“…A recent study found that STEM activities were offered at over 70% of all programs (Afterschool Alliance, 2020). In libraries the growth has been more recent but dramatic: in 2016, 55% of libraries reported offering STEM programming at least monthly (Hakala et al, 2016), while in 2019 that percentage had risen to 70% (Shtivelband et al, 2019). At the same time, research suggests that the majority of OST educators do not have strong backgrounds in STEM (Chi et al, 2008), leading to repeated calls for professional learning opportunities (e.g., National Research Council, 2015;Rosa, 2018).…”

Section: The Need For Virtual Professional Development For Out-of-sch...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Science in Out-of-School Settings

2022

Frontiers Research Topics

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Frontiers is more than just an open-access publisher of scholarly articles: it is a pioneering approach to the world of academia, radically improving the way scholarly research is managed. The grand vision of Frontiers is a world where all people have an equal opportunity to seek, share and generate knowledge. Frontiers provides immediate and permanent online open access to all its publications, but this alone is not enough to realize our grand goals. Frontiers Journal SeriesThe Frontiers Journal Series is a multi-tier and interdisciplinary set of open-access, online journals, promising a paradigm shift from the current review, selection and dissemination processes in academic publishing. All Frontiers journals are driven by researchers for researchers; therefore, they constitute a service to the scholarly community. At the same time, the Frontiers Journal Series operates on a revolutionary invention, the tiered publishing system, initially addressing specific communities of scholars, and gradually climbing up to broader public understanding, thus serving the interests of the lay society, too. Dedication to QualityEach Frontiers article is a landmark of the highest quality, thanks to genuinely collaborative interactions between authors and review editors, who include some of the world's best academicians. Research must be certified by peers before entering a stream of knowledge that may eventually reach the public -and shape society; therefore, Frontiers only applies the most rigorous and unbiased reviews. Frontiers revolutionizes research publishing by freely delivering the most outstanding research, evaluated with no bias from both the academic and social point of view. By applying the most advanced information technologies, Frontiers is catapulting scholarly publishing into a new generation.

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Section: The Need For Virtual Professional Development For Out-of-school-time Educatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability, Spread, and Shift: Developing a Professional Learning Program for Out-of-School Educators With Scale-Up in Mind

Peterman¹,

Evia

Allen

et al. 2021

Front. Educ.

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This case study describes the iterative process used to develop a virtual coaching program for out-of-school-time (OST) educators, particularly those who work in afterschool and library settings. The program, called ACRES (Afterschool Coaching for Reflective Educators in STEM), used a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach to consider issues related to scale-up. Afterschool and library settings are complex systems that include supports and barriers that require adaptation for implementation. Throughout the design process, program developers worked to identify the essential elements of the program that should be maintained across contexts, while attending to the diverse needs of individual OST settings. Survey and interview data were collected from the full range of stakeholders throughout the implementation process to verify the importance of the essential elements to the professional learning model, and to gather early indicators of the program’s potential related to three key concepts for successful scale-up of programs: sustainability, spread, and shift. Conclusions are shared in relation to how these types of results support the scale-up of programs, and the strengths and gaps in the process used to apply the DBIR approach in our work.

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Exploring “STEM-Readiness” in Public Libraries

Cited by 6 publications

References 7 publications

Spatial inequalities leave micropolitan areas and Indigenous populations underserved by informal STEM learning institutions

Spatial inequalities leave micropolitan areas and Indigenous populations underserved by informal STEM learning institutions

Learning Science in Out-of-School Settings

Sustainability, Spread, and Shift: Developing a Professional Learning Program for Out-of-School Educators With Scale-Up in Mind

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