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

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (41) ◽  
pp. eabb3819
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Short ◽  
Rhonda Struminger ◽  
Jill Zarestky ◽  
James Pippin ◽  
Minna Wong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Stem Learning ◽  
Stem Careers ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Learning Institutions

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.

MAKESHOP

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-50
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Core ◽  
Children's Museum ◽  
Middle Ring

MAKESHOP is striving to improve what is known about making and learning by carefully examining and documenting what practices create the best experiences for learners in a makerspace. At the forefront is the belief in using real materials and real tools to foster learning. Located in the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, MAKESHOP is an exhibit that occupies approximately 3,000 square feet. Approaching the MAKESHOP, visitors see three rings of activities. Very simple tinkering activities are in the outermost ring. More complicated electronics and circuitry-based activities that are somewhat facilitated are in the second ring. The middle ring is the core of the makerspace with the typical makerspace fabrication equipment. Nationally known for its research on informal learning using making technology, MAKESHOP helps other makerspaces get started. Through its work with Google, MAKESHOP will soon help launch nearly 100 makerspaces across the United States. Like many makerspaces, MAKESHOP has challenges in reaching underserved populations. This chapter explores MAKESHOP.

scholarly journals Retrospective analysis of a STEM outreach event reveals positive influences on student attitudes toward STEM careers but not scientific methodology

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-436
Author(s):  
A. J. Crawford ◽  
Cassandra L. Hays ◽  
Sarah L. Schlichte ◽  
Sydney E. Greer ◽  
Halle J. Mallard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Stem Careers ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Stem Literacy ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
And Mathematics

Substantial, involved, and expensive efforts to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge and career interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are enthusiastically supported by many scientific, federal, and local organizations. The articulated underlying goals for these efforts include an enhanced public understanding of science and science-related policy, an increased diversity in STEM careers, and an increase in the future STEM workforce. This effort is primarily driven by an underperformance of the United States that includes poor test performance and limited number of students pursuing STEM degrees. Despite this investment, attitudes toward STEM have not notably changed. The goal of this project was to determine students’ attitudes toward STEM in response to a previously established scientific outreach event. This event was used to address three common goals in STEM outreach: STEM literacy, diversity and inclusion, and career preparedness. We found there was a notable difference in the attitudes toward scientific activities and interest in pursuing a “Science Career” after participation in this event. Strikingly, interest in hypothesis development, the keystone of all STEM disciplines, was the least liked of all the activities offered during the event. Our data suggest that events designed to enhance interest in pursuing a STEM career may benefit from different elements compared with events designed to increase understanding of STEM literacy concepts, such as hypothesis development.

Understanding understanding: a model for the public learning of radioactivity

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Alsop
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Change Model ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Conceptual Change Model

While much of the work in the public understanding of science has focused on the public's appreciation of science and their familiarity with key scientific concepts, understanding the processes involved in learning science has largely been ignored. This article documents a study of how particular members of the public learn about radiation and radioactivity, and proposes a model to describe their learning—the Informal Conceptual Change Model [ICCM]. ICCM is a multidimensional framework that incorporates three theoretical dimensions—the cognitive, conative, and affective. The paper documents each of these dimensions, and then illustrates the model by drawing upon data collected in a case study. The emphasis of the analysis is on understanding how the members of the public living in an area with high levels of background radiation learn about the science of this potential health threat. The summarizing comments examine the need for a greater awareness of the complexities of informal learning.

scholarly journals El Nacimiento del Pueblo Mestizo: Critical Discourse on Historical Trauma, Community Resilience and Healing

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-275
Author(s):  
Lisa Cacari Stone ◽  
Magdalena Avila ◽  
Bonnie Duran
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Field Notes

Purpose. Historical trauma has been widely applied to American Indian/Alaska Native and other Indigenous populations and includes dimensions of language, sociocultural, and land losses and associated physical and mental disorders, as well as economic hardships. Insufficient evidence remains on the experiences of historical trauma due to waves of colonization for mixed-race Mexican people with indigenous ancestry (el pueblo mestizo). Research Question. Drawing from our critical lenses and epistemic advantages as indigenous feminist scholars, we ask, “How can historical trauma be understood through present-day discourse of two mestizo communities? What are public health practice and policy implications for healing historical trauma among mestizo populations?” Methodology and Approach. We analyzed the discourse from two community projects: focus groups and ethnographic field notes from a study in the U.S.–Mexico border region (2012–2014) and field notes and digital stories from a service-learning course in northern New Mexico (2016–2018). Findings. Our analysis describes the social and historical experiences of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Chicanas/os, and Nuevo Mexicano peoples in the southwestern border region of the United States. We found four salient themes as manifestations of “soul-wound”: (1) violence/fear, (2) discrimination/shame, (3) loss, and (4) deep sorrow. Themes mitigating the trauma were community resiliency rooted in “querencia” (deep connection to land/home/people) and “conscientizacion” (critical consciousness). Conclusion. Historical trauma experienced by mestizo Latinx communities is rooted in local cultural and intergenerational narratives that link traumatic events in the historic past to contemporary local experiences. Future public health interventions should draw on culturally centered strength-based resilience approaches for healing trauma and advancing health equity.

Evidence of enhanced precipitation due to irrigation over the Great Plains of the United States

2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (D15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony DeAngelis ◽  
Francina Dominguez ◽  
Ying Fan ◽  
Alan Robock ◽  
M. Deniz Kustu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
The United States

Classroom Music Experiences of U.S. Elementary School Children

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Miksza ◽  
Brent M. Gault
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
School Children ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Instruction ◽  
School Year ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Nationally Representative

The primary purpose of this study was to describe the music experiences elementary school children in the United States receive in the academic classroom setting. The data were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of the Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K), a nationally representative study that followed kindergarteners through to their eighth-grade school year with the last data collection wave in 2006–2007. The variables pertaining to music experiences in the academic classroom that were available in the ECLS-K were (a) the frequency and duration with which children received music instruction, (b) the frequency that music was used to teach math, and (c) the percentage of children receiving formal music instruction outside of school. Each of these variables also was analyzed as a function of child urbanicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and race. Statistically significant ( p < .001) disparities among children based on urbanicity, SES, and race were found on each of the music experience variables. Overall, White suburban students of high levels of SES tended to receive significantly more music experiences than students of color from urban and rural settings and of low SES. The findings support the need to advocate for high-quality music programs for all students and particularly for those from traditionally underserved populations.

VARIATION IN PATHOGENICITY BETWEEN ISOLATES OF CLAVICEPS PURPUREA

1977 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 729-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. DARLINGTON ◽  
D. E. MATHRE ◽  
R. H. JOHNSTON
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Triticum Aestivum L ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Claviceps Purpurea ◽  
Male Sterile ◽  
Hordeum Vulgare L ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Weakly Virulent ◽  
Grass Hosts

Isolates of Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul. originally isolated from many different grass hosts in the northern Great Plains and several other areas in the United States and England were tested for their pathogenicity to selected cultivars or lines of male-sterile wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). While there was a great range in the level of virulence, no clear-cut evidence of specific races was obtained. A few isolates were weakly virulent on two cultivars of male-sterile spring wheat but were highly virulent on the other two cultivars tested. Wheat and barley breeders are advised to use a mixture of isolates in screening germ plasm for resistance to ergot.

Rearing the wheat stem sawfly on an artificial diet

2005 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuilo B. Macedo ◽  
Paula A. Macedo ◽  
Robert K.D. Peterson ◽  
David K. Weaver ◽  
Wendell L. Morrill
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Insect Pest ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Yield Losses ◽  
Canadian Prairies ◽  
Wheat Stem Sawfly ◽  
Head Weight ◽  
Harvest Efficiency

The wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton (Hymenoptera: Cephidae), is an insect pest in dryland wheat cropping systems in the southern Canadian Prairies and the northern Great Plains of the United States (Morrill 1997). Yield losses caused by C. cinctus are due to reduced head weight (Holmes 1977; Morrill et al. 1992) and lodging, which decreases harvest efficiency. Estimates of yield losses in Montana alone are about US$25 million per year.

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