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Out of school time (OST) STEM opportunities are often presented as ways to support student achievement, understanding, and identity in STEM. Recent work has begun to explore how OST programs function within the STEM Learning Ecosystem, a holistic view of the various STEM learning opportunities available to youth in a given area. In order to increase understanding of how microcontexts impact the STEM Learning Ecosystem, this study explores the experiences and perspectives of three groups of participants in a network of after school STEM Clubs: youth participants, college student facilitators, and sponsor teachers. Based on interviews with all three groups, results of comparative case study analysis revealed two cases: Narrowed STEM and Expanded STEM. Youth in the Narrowed STEM case had traditional perspectives of STEM as hard, for smart people, and related to behavior; made only weak or no connections between STEM in different contexts; and had tentative STEM identities. Youth in the expanded STEM case had more active perspectives of STEM as exploration and problem solving, saw clear connections across contexts, and had decisive STEM identities. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to show how facilitators and club sponsors negotiated macro-level discourses of STEM and urban education in ways that aligned with youth views and influenced interpretations of the STEM Club. We highlight a need for critical and multiscalar evaluation of STEM Learning Ecosystems, particularly in urban areas, so that learning opportunities are available to all students, particularly those from groups historically excluded from science and STEM.

Informal science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs are important tools for broadening participation in STEM careers. The St. Jude STEM Club (SJSC) is a 10-week afterschool STEM club focused on real-world problems in pediatric cancer research and designed for students in the fifth grade. The SJSC is conducted in partnership with the Shelby County Schools (SCS), an urban school district that encompasses Memphis, TN and serves a disproportionate number of students from underrepresented backgrounds in science. In this report, we provide details on the club logistics, curriculum, pilot data and outcomes related to club impact on student attitudes towards science, and challenges and limitations of the program. Participants in the program reported significantly higher rates of STEM engagement, STEM identity, critical thinking, perseverance, and relationships with peers and adults compared to national normative data. This program description is intended to serve as a resource for other institutions wanting to use a similar strategy to broaden participation in STEM careers.

Out of school time (OST) STEM opportunities are often presented as ways to support student achievement, understanding, and identity in STEM. Recent work has begun to explore how OST programs function within the STEM Learning Ecosystem, a holistic view of the various STEM learning opportunities available to youth in a given area. In order to increase understanding of how microcontexts impact the STEM Learning Ecosystem, this study explores the experiences and perspectives of three groups of participants in a network of after school STEM Clubs: youth participants, college student facilitators, and sponsor teachers. Based on interviews with all three groups, results of comparative case study analysis revealed two cases: Narrowed STEM and Expanded STEM. Youth in the Narrowed STEM case had traditional perspectives of STEM as hard, for smart people, and related to behavior; made only weak or no connections between STEM in different contexts; and had tentative STEM identities. Youth in the expanded STEM case had more active perspectives of STEM as exploration and problem solving, saw clear connections across contexts, and had decisive STEM identities. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to show how facilitators and club sponsors negotiated macro‐level discourses of STEM and urban education in ways that aligned with youth views and influenced interpretations of the STEM Club. We highlight a need for critical and multiscalar evaluation of STEM Learning Ecosystems, particularly in urban areas, so that learning opportunities are available to all students, particularly those from groups historically excluded from science and STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]