Welcome to the CEE-STEM project, please take a look at our video and think about: How can we better recognize and measure young people's knowledge and understanding of STEM?

Thanks for the great intervention concept. I'm glad to see this transformative model for learning that doesn't assume academic models that have failed to be inclusive in the past look to move a few deck chairs.  

Of course, my main question relates to the evidence your collecting. Have you a model for assessment that can ensure that learners can be credentialed in ways that will help potential employers to consider their accomplishments as equivalent to traditional school?  Are you working with employers to think about how these types of programs might also create implicit bias against their potential for a job or career advancement, and strategies to overcome that systemic discrimination?

Great video and a really cool resource!

I am wondering how broadly STEMfolio might be used. For example, we have several STEM projects with programs working with opportunity youth and could benefit from more ways for the students to demonstrate their proficiency. Is STEMfolio designed in a way that allows users from outside of youth builds to use the tool? 

thanks!

This is really amazing - thank you for sharing your work! I'm interested to learn more about your theory of action in terms of how this will work. Namely, I learned from the video is that the app supports users in collecting data (images, video, etc) that supports articulation of competencies (and provision of evidence for claiming competence/experience).   I am guessing that this was informed by an understanding of what kinds of data/competencies the recognisers (i.e. potential employers) would value. Can you share any insights on that theme? 

Thanks!
Susan

This is a truly neat tool that keeps kids' progress literally in their own hands!  The use of the data fulfills a system that I'm working with to increase engagement with portfolio development for interns and other Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO)?

Definitely fits with the Bluetooth era, to form an improved system that supports student and industry needs.

Have you merged with the unions' materials and competency expectations...and how can we see more of STEMfolio involved with field studies?

I absolutely love giving young people autonomy as the learn, grow, and engage in work. I'm very interested in better understanding how the trainers and teachers are involved in supporting the young people through STEMfolio. Also, what resources (e.g. mobile device, data, career counseling) are or will be provided for the young people participating?

This is a really innovative tool aimed at a demographic that seems susceptible to through the cracks.  Do you imagine the use scaling up to the point where you might have regional or trade-specific hubs that do the mentoring and management (e.g., vetting of submitted "collections")? 

Wow! STEMfolio is such a powerful tool! I love how it allows students to take charge of their own learning as well as capture the activities and experiences that are building their STEM skill repertoire! Your question about measuring students' knowledge and understanding of STEM relates to a question we have about how we measure a student's readiness for work-based learning activities.  Employers say that employability skills (often termed "soft" skills) are even more important in the work environment than the knowledge and technical skills needed in the occupation.  In Virginia, our new high school graduation requirements deem that a student must demonstrate that he/she has the 5cs - critical thinking, creativity, communication, citizenship, and collaboration but I have seen little work being done to help schools assess this.  Do you think STEMfolio is a tool that provides a way to assess these skills?  Would the application need to be tweaked for use with students who are still in school?  If so, how?

Jennifer

Jennifer,

Also want to know more about extensions to STEMfolio and interested that you are from Virginia as I’m using Hollins University’s guidance on evaluating college level internships located developed by NACE, National Association of Colleges and Employers to structure the high school level intern involved with our project as part of the ELO (Extended Learning Opportunities) option in NH!  

 I am in the process of involving ongoing technology to formative access progress and find the balance of Bluetooth with broad structure enables better support for the innovation. Most school systems that truly need to offer ELO’s currently lack the administrative structure.  Eager to hear more on how  Virginia will address their expectations for their students possibly with documentation that is national in scope. 

Tracey and team, It is so important to focus on STEM careers with young people that may not be in school or bound for college. Is there a way to see STEMfolio on my phone? I would like to see some of the UDL features that you are using.

 Hello Carolyn,  we're pleased to hear all this great recognition of our focus with STEMfolio. To answer your question about STEMfolio, it is a responsive design and does work on smart phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. At this point, STEMfolio is a prototype and we are studying it in a pilot which means it is not yet available outside our research. We do strive to have this become a product and available to the public for opportunity youth and others.

This is a very exciting project!  How do these young adults get involved in the project if they are not in school or working?  What methods do you and your partners use to recruit them? 

Hi Melissa,

 Thanks for your question.  We are partnered with YouthBuild USA which is a network of approximately 300 programs across the USA and beyond that provide pathways into education, careers and foster community leadership. YouthBuild serves young people living in poverty that have not had adequate support or resources in education and come to YouthBuild to complete their high school equivalency and build skills through work and community leadership opportunities. Through YouthBuild we have recruited from this network of programs for both our co-design phase and now for our RTC.  In terms of criteria look for programs with stable funding and leadership, interest in supporting young people to access STEM careers, capacity to use this tool for 15-20 weeks, and then we try to have a mix of programs including urban/rural, serving large/small groups of young people.  Thanks, Sam

Tracey / Sam / All - terrific work. Thanks for sharing it. 

I'm curious what you've learned specifically about motivations as they relate to youth actually using the app. Like us, I'm guessing that you've done a lot to infuse the tech into the programming and instruction itself, but we're eager to get with like-minded projects to discuss what things you're finding that improve the users' experience, whether technical design or human interaction. 

Here's a link to our project in case it helps to get a sense of what we're up to. Thanks for your thoughts in advance:-)

Hi Marc,

Great project and great video. We are just at the start of our experimental study so much of our learning around Youth actually using the app will come in our post surveys and interviews.  That said, we learned a lot by codesigning the tools with young people and staff about what they needed to make this useful in their context.  For example, youth and staff were the ones who made it clear that they needed to be able to author their own challenges rather than just have a set to choose from. They also wanted a separate domain for documenting career skills so those could be pulled out separately from STEM skills. If you are at EDC locally, perhaps we can find a time in the Fall to meet and share our respective learning. Sam