WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM - BUILDING STEM CAREER READINESS IN K-12 STUDENTS

To maintain its status as the worldwide leader in research, the United States must realize the tremendous scientific power inherent within its student age population. The creation of holistic K-12 programs that spark student interest in science, empower student academic pursuits, and provide students with bona fide research experiences is essential to enhance the migration of talented, STEM-focused students into college STEM majors. By leveraging established partnerships with local high schools and K-12 organizations and listening to the needs of our partners, we have sculpted a new program that will provide holistic training and support to high school students to help them succeed in STEM. Aim 1: To create educational programs that address partner-identified STEM education gaps and to determine if student participation in these programs increases science literacy, scholastic success, college matriculation, and motivation to pursue scientific careers relative to non-participating students. We hypothesize that planned activities will have a strong, positive impact on student success and STEM interest because we are addressing specific needs defined by their educational organizations. Aim 2: To determine whether the context in which research experiences are delivered impacts motivation to enter STEM fields. We hypothesize that, in our student population, research experiences with connections to improving common health conditions will be more motivating for long-term scientific engagement compared with similar research projects that lack such a context. We have established partnerships with local high schools and organizations. All students in these schools and organizations are eligible for all planned activities; essentially all of these students lack opportunities to learn about and pursue an interest in STEM fields, especially research. Our program then possesses great potential to positively impact the confidence and college and career choice of impacted students and thus help inspire the next generation of scientists.