Situating a STEM Education Enhancement Program in Place and Identity: NASA SEES Mosquito Mappers Virtual Summer High School Research Internship

Authentic research experiences and scientist mentors have been shown to engage and excite students, however many students from populations underrepresented in STEM lack access to these opportunities. This paper describes SEES Mosquito Mappers, a virtual summer high school student research internship designed to address geographic, cultural, and digital barriers to STEM participation that underserved students commonly experience.

Over 100 students from across the U.S. elected to participate in the 2020 Mosquito Mappers internship. Interns focused on identifying environmental variables predictive of mosquito breeding sites. Collect Earth Online, an open-source, satellite image interpretation system, was employed to classify and analyze land cover study sites. Because of health and safety restrictions during the summer 2020 pandemic, the planned ground validation of the analysis using the GLOBE Observer app was not a required component of the research. The interns used cloud-based scientific data access and visualization tools (AppEEARS, Climate Engine) to enrich their study site with environmental data obtained by NASA's Earth Observing system, then pooled their data for analysis and completed team projects.

Situated cognition theory informed the design of the 8-week research experience to ensure cultural inclusivity and personal relevance of the project activities for the interns. With the local geographic research focus, each intern brings their personal experience of place to the project, providing them with their own unique and authoritative scientific voice. The serious threat of mosquito vector-borne disease anchored the interns' research in real life issues and community prosocial values, elements identified as significant motivators for many underserved students.

Ultimately, our goal is to develop, test and evaluate a model for high school STEM enhancement that can be adapted and scaled throughout NASA's distributed outreach ecosystem. We describe the 2020 pilot outcomes and suggest when STEM enhancement research experiences are created within a culture of intentionality that include a structured instructional design process, a community of practice, and opportunities for self-efficacy, underserved students will experience greater learning and motivational benefits.