{"id":42,"date":"2014-03-31T18:33:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T18:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/outreach\/?p=42"},"modified":"2015-03-20T23:29:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T23:29:53","slug":"portland-parkrose-project-aims-track-interest-stem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/outreach\/2014\/03\/31\/portland-parkrose-project-aims-track-interest-stem\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Parkrose project tracks interest in STEM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"parkrose\"In the Parkrose community, a diverse neighborhood in northeast Portland, OSU researchers Lynn Dierking, John Falk and Nancy Staus are in the middle of a study to understand\u00a0how children access and use STEM resources\u00a0in their daily lives.<\/p>\n

With funding from the Noyce Foundation, OSU\u2019s SYNERGIES project<\/a> has been tracking over 200 Parkrose youth from elementary to middle school age, their peers, siblings and significant adults in their lives since 2010. Preliminary findings indicate that youth entering 7th grade are still interested in pursuing STEM learning, but research shows this enthusiasm will taper off in the next two years unless they are engaged in out-of-school STEM activities.<\/p>\n

The long-term project goal is to use these data to develop specific strategies and tools to improve STEM learning in Parkrose that can be broadly applied to long-term improvements in STEM public education locally, nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n

One improvement, a weekly afterschool STEM club at the middle school, a partnership with OSU Extension\u2019s 4-H Metro team<\/a>, has already seen a turnout of over 40 youth in just two meetings. Researchers hope that similar efforts might change these youths\u2019 STEM engagement trajectories.<\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

Related reading<\/h3>\n