Increasing STEM engagement through opportunity landscaping.

Abstract

This paper outlines our approach to one city's opportunity landscape. The opportunity landscape involves collecting systems-driven data sets corresponding to organizations, places, barriers and supports that collectively shape the opportunities available to youth, families, and educators. Understanding and utilizing this landscape is crucial to fully accounting for youth progress along STEM pathways. Such awareness is vital as stakeholders often operate in silos and may not fully grasp how their impact areas within the ecosystem intersect with others. For example, how do school-based out-of-school time opportunities affect programming at local parks and libraries? How does reduced bus fare impact kids' ability to move around the city after school and on weekends? How do employers create pathways for entry-level staff? Our work aims to create a cohesive landscape that brings together stakeholders, their insights, and affordances and creates opportunities for all. This paper describes the design efforts that led to one city's summer 2023 youth STEM learning opportunities. We discuss the phases of our work and approach to collaborative design with community and organizational partners to apply insights and create opportunities that increase youth freedom of movement and access to resources. We provide specific examples to illustrate the impact of our design.