Table 7 Themes in students’ open responses to survey items regarding activities that support their development within each construct.

From: Consequential insights for advancing informal STEM learning and outcomes for students from historically marginalized communities

Activity themes

Supported constructs (% of students who attributed each theme to a supported construct)

Research activities

• Identity (17%)

• Intent (17%)

Using scientific tools and materials

• Identity (26%)

• Intent (17%)

Discussing primary literature

• Identity (10%)

• Intent (7%)

Collaborating with peers and group work

• 21st Century Learning Skills (47%)

• Social Capital (22%)

• Intent (4%)

• Identity (3%)

Presentations and project work

• Social Capital (24%)

• 21st Century Learning Skills (14%)

• Identity (10%)

• Awareness (7%)

• Intent (7%)

Guest speakers, interviews, and career-connected videos

• Awareness (72%)

• Intent (29%)

• Social Capital (20%)

• Identity (9%)

• 21st Century Learning Skills (5%)

  1. Student participants were asked to share which activities supported their development in each of the five constructs. These open responses were coded based on emergent themes across all experiences 2019–2021. The percent of students who attributed each theme to a supported construct was calculated based on the total number of respondents for each respective construct (n = 95 for Awareness, 145 for Identity, 129 for Intent, 132 for Social Capital, and 116 for 21st Century Learning Skills (21st CLS)). Not all students provided responses for each construct.
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