{"id":65891,"date":"2023-02-10T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T20:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=65891"},"modified":"2024-04-25T11:30:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T15:30:11","slug":"guiding-youth-to-create-change-through-stem","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/news\/articles\/2023\/guiding-youth-to-create-change-through-stem\/","title":{"rendered":"Guiding Youth to Create Change through STEM"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin news-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-flip has-box has-media-focus-center-middle has-quaternary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1080\" height=\"700\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"animated picture of young boy and girl looking out all graphic representation of stem fields\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic.png 1080w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic-900x583.png 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic-768x498.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic-500x324.png 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic-992x643.png 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/STEM-graphic-1000x648.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">STEM<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/news\/articles\/2023\/guiding-youth-to-create-change-through-stem\/\">Guiding Youth to Create Change through STEM<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Researchers at BU Wheelock&#8217;s Earl Center for Learning &amp; Innovation are exploring the impact STEM can have on young people<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar news-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">February 10, 2023<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/news\/authors\/finn-gardiner\/\">Finn Gardiner<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>Developing young people\u2019s sense of agency as STEM learners, community members, and creative thinkers is the driving force behind two projects led by BU Wheelock\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/earlcenter\/\">Earl Center for Learning &amp; Innovation<\/a>. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Nurturant STEM Learning and STEM Cascades focus on encouraging young people\u2019s creative development, critical insight, and social thriving.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Earl Center engages in collaborative research that integrates science, technology, mathematics, engineering, humanities, and the arts to support young people\u2019s growth. It calls itself \u201ca collaborative space for social dreaming and radical hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe fundamentally want to change what learning and teaching look like in the world, where they take place, who gets to call themselves learners and teachers, and recognize that every learning setting is a designed learning setting reflecting particular purposes and values,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/beth-warren\/\">Beth Warren<\/a>, Sylvia Earl Professor and director of the Earl Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Engaging patients in pediatric settings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Separated from their family, friends, schools, and communities, students in hospitals often lose their sense of agency and social belonging, since they are \u201cin an isolated setting that is really designed to treat a disease,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/maria-c-olivares\/\">Maria Olivares<\/a>, one of the principal investigators of Nurturant STEM Learning. Also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=2005942&amp;HistoricalAwards=false\">Young Patients as Innovators<\/a>, the project engages in the creation of culturally sustaining makerspaces for patients in pediatric settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalharbor.org\/\">Digital Harbor Foundation<\/a>, the Earl Center researchers and educational designers work with children, adolescents, and hospital staff at the University of Maryland Children\u2019s Hospital to develop informal arts-based STEM learning experiences that appeal to a diverse patient population with varying needs across different settings in the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These learning experiences are designed to appeal to young people\u2019s curiosity and creativity. \u201cA lot of the work that\u2019s happening with this project is environmental graphic design. What are the existing resources in a space? And how can we leverage them?\u201d says Olivares. \u201cIt\u2019s about STEM, but it\u2019s also about nurturance and art.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Youth making positive contributions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf we take young people seriously as people who teach other people, then how do we help them be better teachers or facilitators of learning?\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/eli-tucker-raymond\/\">Eli Tucker-Raymond<\/a>, one of the principal investigators of <a href=\"https:\/\/stemcascades.org\/\">STEM Cascades<\/a>, a project that explores how adolescents and young adults\u2014especially youth of color\u2014teach each other math and science.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do this work, the STEM Cascades team has developed relationships with three Boston-area programs. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.typp.org\/\">Young People\u2019s Project<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/southendtechcenter.org\/?page_id=20\">Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn<\/a>, and the Teacher Cadet Program work with teenagers to develop their growth as agents of change who can make positive contributions in the classroom and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re developing an idea called <em>youth pedagogical development<\/em>. How does youth pedagogy look different than, say, what pedagogy looks like in traditional adult-child school structures?\u201d says Tucker-Raymond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project\u2019s researchers emphasize the importance of listening to what students say about how they learn best and how other students like them learn. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot we can learn from young people about how teaching happens, and also about how we approach education more broadly,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/katherine-frankel\/\">Kate Frankel<\/a>, another principal investigator and an associate professor of literacy education at BU Wheelock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Creating change through research<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Projects such as Nurturant STEM Learning and STEM Cascades are an important part of how the Earl Center creates social and cultural change through inclusive research that questions the status quo. \u201cWhen we disrupt the settled notions that exist already, we make way for letting the whole self in,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/greg-benoit\/\">Greg Benoit<\/a>, assistant director of the Earl Center and a lecturer in mathematics education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frankel agrees. The Earl Center is a place where \u201cwe can really take seriously the idea that education could\u2014and should\u2014be different, and to imagine what that might be in partnership with others,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Developing young people\u2019s sense of agency as STEM learners, community members, and creative thinkers is the driving force behind two projects led by BU Wheelock\u2019s Earl Center for Learning &amp; Innovation. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Nurturant STEM Learning and STEM Cascades focus on encouraging young people\u2019s creative development, critical insight, and social thriving.&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21306,"featured_media":65009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"STEM","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[4083,5058,5645,4821,4830,5644],"bu-publication":[6614],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[6661,6741,6760,6645,6646,6776],"news-topic":[6936,6790,6934,6789],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/65891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65891"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/65891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78227,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/65891\/revisions\/78227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=65891"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=65891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}