The Ivory Tower and the Community: A New Approach to Emphasizing the Relevance of Environmental Science Research

Over the past eight years we have developed and implemented several U.C. Berkeley-based outreach programs that provide opportunities for grades nine through eleven students in the East San Francisco Bay Area to gain skills and understandings that increase their capacity to enroll and perform successfully in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in the future, which enhances their capacity to decide to pursue STEM careers. A common element of these programs is the opportunity they provide participants to engage in environmental science research projects that are directly linked to relevant, real-world environmental problems and issues facing their communities. Analysis of evidence gleaned from questionnaires, interviews and specific assessment instruments indicates that these programs have consistently achieved a high degree of success in that they have: significantly increased participants' understanding of the process and nature of science; enhanced their intellectual self-confidence with regard to STEM; developed deeper appreciation of how scientific research can contribute to the maintenance of healthy local environments; developed a greater interest in participating in STEM-related courses of study and after school programs; and improved attitudes toward STEM. These results corroborate recent research studies that indicate a close relationship between educational activities that promote the perception of STEM as being relevant and the ability to foster development of deeper conceptual understandings among teens. Moreover, they support the notion that providing opportunities for students to develop personal connections with particular issues discussed, and real-world STEM experiences that make STEM more relevant and interesting can help to bring about changes in attitude, which is a key component in improving STEM learning and understanding particularly among urban youth. Overall, our work suggests that in order for a given STEM education intervention strategy to be truly successful it must include activities that effectively counter the notion of STEM irrelevancy, and provide experiences that both address youth concerns and interests, and stimulate development and enactment of ideas within a broader community-based context.