Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, haptics, and 3-dimensionality, provide novel opportunities to allow students to investigate scientific phenomena by fostering perceptions of virtual presence, the feeling of being sensorially immersed and authentically interacting within a computer-generated virtual learning environment (VLE). Neurotypical learners are largely represented in VLE research on science learning, with fewer with neurodivergent learners, such as students with ADHD. This descriptive case study sought to address the dearth in the literature on neurodivergent students’ experiences, with emerging technologies, for learning science. Specifically, the case describes the extent to which neurodivergent learners experience the affordances of VLEs for science learning, as compared to their neurotypical peers, in: zooming, spatially orienting and rotating objects, viewing multiple representations and abstract processes in real-time, as well engaging in risk through multiple trials. Five middle grades students (diagnosed with ADHD) were assessed and observed using a tool (zSpace) that combines emerging technologies to learn cardiac anatomy and physiology. Students’ utterances of virtual presence and technological affordances were coded, and frequency counts and percentages were calculated, both individually and collectively. The results found that students most described sensory (41%), control (30%), and realism (26%) constructs with fewer reports of holding their attention (3%). Analyses of cardiac assessments found gains in scores for spatial rotation and viewing abstract processes, no change in score in viewing multiple representations, and a decrease in scores for spatial orientation. This case study provides unique insight into the needs of neurodivergent learners when using emerging technologies for science learning.

Background/Context The United States is facing a shortage of domestically prepared STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals, yet many high school graduates find they are not sufficiently prepared for college-level work in STEM subjects. Dual enrollment STEM courses count for both high school and college credit, expose students to the demands of a college course, and may be used to augment existing high school course offerings and graduate students who are better prepared to continue, and are interested in continuing, their education in STEM. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study investigated changes in students’ reported interest in STEM careers after taking a dual enrollment STEM course. We address the following questions: (1) Are high school students who take one or more STEM dual enrollment courses more likely than their peers to report an interest in STEM careers by the end of high school? (2) Is dual enrollment STEM course-taking more effective than Advanced Placement STEM course-taking in increasing student interest in STEM careers by the end of high school? Research Design A quasi-experimental research design was used in this work, with propensity weights employed to account for group self-selection effects post hoc. Data were collected through a national survey of college students (N = 14,114) who provided information about their K–12 experiences. Findings/Results After controlling for demographic, academic, and background characteristics, particularly prior interest in a STEM career, the odds of a STEM career intention were 1.3 times (p < .05) greater for those taking a dual enrollment course compared with peers who did not. Students who took both dual enrollment and AP STEM courses had 2.1 times the odds of their nonparticipating peers to report an interest in STEM careers. Results show that the STEM dual enrollment intervention is equally effective for students of all demographic backgrounds. Conclusions/Recommendations This study is the first to examine the link between dual enrollment and career interest, revealing an additional avenue through which students may be encouraged to pursue STEM careers. Dual enrollment is a promising intervention to increase STEM career interest among all high school students, including students of different genders, races, socioeconomic status (as measured by highest parental education level), and academic achievement (as measured by math SAT score). The policy implications for this work are that dual enrollment programs should be vigorously implemented and promoted in an effort to increase the number of students, especially students from underrepresented groups, who graduate from high school with an interest in a STEM career.

This study investigated the relationship between engaging in free choice STEM activities (hobbies) and career selection with the goal of understanding the factors that influence the development of science interests and science identity for those who chose a STEM career and those that did not. The 2864 participants in the study were adult hobbyists that included birders, astronomers, gardeners, model builders, insect collectors, rock/fossil collectors, home brewers, beekeepers, inventors, and environmental monitors. Participants completed a survey about their educational background, levels of hobby participation, motivation to participate in the hobby, perceived benefits of participating in the hobby, influences to continue to continue to engage in the hobby, reported influences on career choice influences, and perceived science identity. Results showed hobbyists with STEM careers were significantly more likely than those without STEM careers to rate elementary, middle, and high school experiences as well as college, museums and science centers, and clubs as influential on the development of the hobby. Those hobbyists with STEM careers were significantly more likely than those without a STEM career to report more ability in science, mathematics, and technology and to report that their choice of a career was influenced by factors such as enjoyment, encouragement from family, and hobby involvement. Conclusions suggest that engagement in a science hobby can provide support for youth to continue on to a STEM career as an adult.

Despite policy changes and targeted outreach, issues of underrepresentation persist for women and minorities in science fields. Previous research has explored extrinsic motivational factors for underrepresented groups in both formal educational settings. However, little research has investigated intrinsic motivation within informal educational experiences like active participation in free choice learning activities like a science-based hobby. Interviews were conducted with 17 astronomy hobbyists who self-identified as under-represented individuals (race, ethnicity and gender). Respondents’ hobby experiences and motivational aspects emerged from analysis of the descriptive accounts provided by the interviews. Findings suggested there was a positive relationship between the degree of hobby participation and number of challenges presented in various phases of hobby growth. Additionally, disparities in sampled minorities’ access to authentic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) experiences served as a factor influencing their hobby motivation and subsequent development. Other factors that influenced minority engagement included differential participation in hobby clubs, lack of access to mentors, and the delay of active hobby participation until adulthood. Findings suggest science hobbies as an avenue to motivate underrepresented groups in science interests. This information may prove useful in guiding next steps regarding policy and research in the under-representation of women and minorities in STEM hobbies and STEM careers alike.

— This exploratory case study evaluated perceived presence of students and teachers after learning science topics on a 3-dimensional, haptic-enabled, virtual reality system. Twenty students and teachers completed four, one hour sessions with the instructional technology exploring biology and physical science content. Participants were interviewed and surveyed to evaluate their perception of presence via four constructs: control, sensory, distraction, and realism. Additional questions assessed changes in participants’ acquired skills from sessions. Results indicated the survey had high reliability for all constructs. Differences between students’ and teachers’ responses showed students perceived their virtual experience as more realistic than teachers. Students more than teachers reported improved gains science process skills (analyzing data, reporting results, recognizing error) and understandings of the nature of science (tentativeness and sociocultural context of science). When asked how this technology was regarded as a viable instructional option for learning science, students ranked the virtual technology higher than teachers as more interesting and increasing their understanding. Results showed students ranked zSpace as the most preferred instructional option and teachers ranked hands-on activities with materials as their most preferred instructional option.

STEM hobbies are free-choice activities through which participating individuals may develop sophisticated STEM knowledge and expertise. To date, research into STEM hobbies and hobbyists has examined hobby groups by subject area. Missing from this body of work is research that examines the development and participation in different types of hobbies by age, ethnicity, and gender of participants. This research, part of a larger series of investigations of American adult STEM hobbyists, aims to fill that gap. Surveys were completed by 2,838 respondents from ten different STEM hobbies (astronomy, beekeeping, birding, electronics/robotics, environmental monitoring, falconry, gardening/horticulture, home brewing, model building, rock/fossil collecting). Results showed that there is great variation between STEM hobby groups across multiple variables and divergent descriptive profiles emerged for each group. Results also showed that, in several groups, more than half of the adult hobbyists reported first participating in their hobby during their youth. This study illustrates how crucial childhood experiences are to encouraging lifelong explorations in STEM and provides information about the types of experiences hobbyists reported as being influential to their hobby-related learning and development. This information may be used by educators and organizations to design programs to support current and future hobbyists.

Creating citizens interested in science and able to participate in science discourse and decisions is one of the goals of science education. Science hobbyists embody this goal through their life-long leisure interests and engagement in science. This study compared the motivations, perceived hobby benefits, and factors that influenced their hobby development for citizen-scientists and non-citizen scientists. A deeper understanding of factors that relate to involvement in both citizen science and science hobbies may inform efforts to encourage such participation. Data were collected through open-ended interviews with 107 amateur astronomer and birder hobbyists (67 citizen scientists and 40 non-citizen science participants) and an online survey. The results of the interviews informed the development of the online survey that was distributed nationally; participants included 2119 non-citizen scientists and 745 citizen scientists. Citizen scientists reported different hobby-related motivations, interests, and experiences than non-citizen science hobbyists. Male citizen scientists were more likely than male non-citizen scientists to report sharing information with others and educating youth as important motives to their hobby participation. As compared to non citizen-scientists, citizen scientists reported being more influenced in their hobby by formal and informal educational institutions, were more likely than non-citizen scientist hobbyists to report publishing articles for the public and using electronic media to communicate with other hobbyists. Citizen scientists reported improved science process skills and a better understanding of the nature of science. The implications of the results for a deeper understanding of what encourages individuals to participate in citizen science and science hobbies are discussed.

This study examined the relationship between students' (N=229) concepts of size and scale and students' achievement in science and mathematics over a 3-year period. Size and scale are considered one of the big ideas in science that permeates disparate science and mathematics content areas, yet little is known about the relationship between students' conceptualization of size and scale and students' achievement in science and mathematics. The study used a modified panel longitudinal design to follow the same class of students over a 3-year period. The goal was to explore whether understandings of size and scale are related to achievement in mathematics and science. Results indicated a strong positive significant relationship existed between students' understanding of size and scale and students' science achievement in grades 5 and 8. There was a positive significant relationship between students' concepts of size and scale and students' mathematics achievement in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. An examination of the relationships is included as well as a discussion of the integration of crosscutting concepts into science and mathematics instruction as a way to support deep learning.

This study examined the degree to which individual differences in students' (N = 232) concepts of size and scale are explained by factors such as students' innate sense of number, out-of-school science experiences, exposure to size and scale instruction, gender identities, and racial/ethnic identities. There is increasing emphasis being placed on the use of crosscutting concepts to promote deep learning in science. A multiple linear regression indicated students' racial/ethnic identities, experiences with scale outside of school, and exposure to size and scale instruction significantly added to the prediction model. Results from this study can both inform the movement toward incorporating crosscutting concepts into pedagogy as well as inform educators, administrators, and other stakeholders of the factors that may shape students' understanding of the cross-cutting concept of scale, proportion, and quantity.

This research examined lifelong science learning reported by amateur astronomers and birders. One hundred seven adults who reported engaging in an informal (out-of-school) science interest were interviewed as part of an ongoing series of studies of lifelong science learners. The goal of the study was to gain insight into how and why amateur astronomers and birders pursue their hobby, how their hobby developed, and what influenced that development. Educators may use this information to design programs that support informal science learning over the lifespan. Informed by self-determination theory, the characteristics, initial experiences, and interests, influences on continued development of science interests, sources of education, and benefits of engaging in a science hobby were explored. Results showed that most of the participants' lifelong science interests began in childhood and were influenced by events, resources, and family members. Members of both hobby groups reported that, as a result of their informal science interests, they were more knowledgeable about science, more knowledgeable about how science is done, possessed better observation skills, possessed more environmental awareness, and had opportunities to socialize and network with others with similar interests. The intersection of motivation and social capital derived from hobby engagement and lifelong science learning is discussed. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This exploratory study examined middle school teachers’ and students’ perceived presence after learning science with a virtual reality system. The goal was to determine if the presence assessment was valid and reliable for youth and adults. Students and teachers (novice and experienced) completed 4 sessions learning about the heart and electrical circuits with the virtual reality system. Participants completed a presence survey about four constructs of presence (control, sensory, distraction, and realism) and teachers participated in an interview. Results showed that the presence survey had high reliability for all presence constructs. Differences in students’ and teachers’ responses were compared and only one significant difference was found between the two groups. Students were much more likely than the teachers to rate the virtual reality experience as realistic. Possible influences of cognitive development are discussed. Key-Words: virtual reality, presence, science education

Science hobbyists engage in self-directed, free-choice science learning and many have considerable expertise in their hobby area. This study focused on astronomy and birding hobbyists and examined how they used organizations to support their hobby engagement. Interviews were conducted with 58 amateur astronomers and 49 birders from the midwestern and southeastern United States. A learning ecology framework was used to map the community contexts with which the hobbyists acted. Results indicated seven contexts that supported the participants' hobby involvement over time: home, K-12 schools, universities, informal learning institutions, hobby clubs, conferences, and community organizations. Three themes emerged that described how hobbyists interacted with organizations in their communities: (1) organizations provided multiple points of entrance into the science-learning ecosystem, (2) organizations acted as catalysts to facilitate a hobbyist's development in their hobby, and (3) the relationship between hobbyists and organizations they used for learning eventually became bidirectional. Results showed that both astronomy and birding hobbyists used science-learning organizations to meet their hobby-related learning goals. Most hobbyists in the sample (90% astronomers, 78% birders) also engaged in outreach and shared their hobby with members of their community. Patterns of interaction of the astronomy and birding hobbyists within the seven contexts are discussed.

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