By Jennifer Wyld<\/p>\n
Taking a break from beating my Maker drum this month, I thought I would write about the actual paid work I do while working on my degree.\u00a0 I have a research assistant position on a longitudinal study happening here in the Northwest, in which I was lucky enough to get hired my first year of this PhD process and will see me through to my graduation.\u00a0 Lucky indeed, in this world of expensive educations! The project I am part of is called Synergies, and the PI\u2019s I work with from OSU are John Falk and Lynn Dierking- the other two-thirds of the FCL staff in our department.\u00a0 We also have some colleagues from other universities, such as William Penuel, \u00a0in Boulder, Colorado.\u00a0 The goal of this project is to follow the interest development of a cohort of early adolescents from 5th<\/sup> through 8th<\/sup> grade.\u00a0 While we are particularly interested in STEM, we are noting other interest development as well.\u00a0 To gather data, we are using both quantitative and qualitative techniques.\u00a0 Each academic year, we are surveying every member of the grade cohort (who we can get a consent form from!) with a questionnaire covering topics such as interest in STEM fields, career aspirations, family practices, and out-of-school activities.\u00a0 We are supplementi<\/p>\n The first two years of the study focused on establishing a base-line of understanding about what is currently happening in the community and with this group of youth. \u00a0\u00a0We are using this data to start creating an asset map for the area as well as an \u201cagent-based modeling system\u201d that we intend to use as a predictive tool (if we tweak the community \u2018x\u2019 way, \u2018y\u2019 happens).\u00a0 Our next step has been to build a collaborative relationship with both in-school and out-of-school organizations that we will leverage to create interventions to see if we can positively impact interest development around STEM.<\/p>\n Two graduate projects that are hoping to use these interventions are around gardening and Maker experiences.\u00a0 You can probably guess who is working on the second one! However, the one of the overall goals of funders of the implementation part of \u00a0the study is to help create sustainable programs, so Deb Bailey (the other grad research assistant) and I will be working with groups already established in the greater area of our study, but who are not currently active in this particular community.\u00a0 We are both still just in the planning stages- but we will keep you posted!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jennifer Wyld Taking a break from beating my Maker drum this month, I thought I would write about the actual paid work I do while working on my degree.\u00a0 I have a research assistant position on a longitudinal study happening here in the Northwest, in which I was lucky enough to get hired my… Continue reading