(Oregon State University)
This presentation will discuss research that focuses on strategies for meaningfully engaging diverse communities in free-choice/informal learning, and it will share findings from several research studies. The first is a recent national survey of informal-science professionals' views of equity and access: what is working/not working, and what challenges/opportunities professionals perceive that might help/impede moving forward in this important field. The second is a National Science Foundation-funded investigation to understand the long-term impacts of girls-only informal/free-choice STEM learning programs on young women from under-resourced communities. The third is a longitudinal study of youths' STEM interest and participation pathways. The presentation will also describe the work of one of Dr. Dierking's students who is studying new immigrants' sense of place, and how this influences their views of conservation.
Dr. Dierking is Sea Grant Professor, Free-Choice STEM Learning, Associate Dean for Research in the Colleges of Science and Education at Oregon State University. Her free-choice learning research (after-school, home-, community-based contexts) focuses on youth and families, particularly those under-represented in STEM. Her STEM learning research is diverse: including long-term impacts of US girls-only informal programs, youths' interest and participation pathways in an under-resourced Oregon community, and impacts of a science center opening in under-resourced Sinaloa state in Mexico. Dr. Dierking publishes extensively and is on editorial boards of Connected Science, Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, and Afterschool Matters. She received the 2010 American Alliance of Museums' John Cotton Dana Leadership Award and was a speaker in the US-NSF's 2013 Distinguished Lecture Series.