Exploring the Relationship Between Field-Based Education and STEM Identity

This Winter, Harvard Graduate School of Education student Cynthia Liu (‘24) has been working with Clarisse Hart, Katharine Hinkle, and collaborator Dr. Tara Goodhue to begin an evaluation of the STEM identity and environmental awareness of participants in our Schoolyard Ecology program. The goal is to provide an overall sense of how effective participation in our citizen science projects has been in shaping students' understanding of their own agency to use science as a tool to steward their local environments.

The measure of success is not necessarily that all students want to be scientists for their career, but that they can see themselves on that path. This spring we will be selecting our measurement tool and partner schools. We will be conducting the study during the 2024-2025 school year.