As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to grow, understanding what influences people to pursue these fields has become an important topic for discussion, particularly in the case of formative experiences. The goal of our project was to help Museums Victoria better understand formative STEM experiences so they can inspire current and future generations to pursue STEM through their offerings. We conducted focus groups with Australian university students studying STEM to understand what childhood experiences positively or negatively influence the pursuit of STEM. We also asked participants to recall their childhood experiences within a museum setting. Additionally, we interviewed Scienceworks employees and analyzed program run sheets to understand what characteristics are already present in Scienceworks offerings. We compiled our findings from our literature review, focus group analysis, and employee interviews to determine the most influential formative characteristics. We used these characteristics to construct a checklist that can be used to help establish goals and outcomes for Scienceworks experiences. To ensure that our checklist can be applied, we mapped it against a small sample of current Scienceworks offerings. We found that all characteristics can be found within these offerings, however, some appeared more frequently than others, which can help identify areas of further exploration. In order to spark future discussion about formative experiences, we provided Scienceworks with our checklist, recommendations, and potential areas of future study.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Tozier, Sarah
• Gatti, Emma
• Levine, Isaac
• Breiling, Erik

Subject

• Learning
• Project-Based Learning
• Innovation
• Community

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-121323-022724
• 115059

Keyword

• Formative Experiences
• Expectancy-Value Theory
• STEM
• Museums

Advisor

• Chee, Jonathan
• Higgins, Lorraine D.

Year

• 2023

Center

• Melbourne, Australia Project Center - IQP

Sponsor

• Museums Victoria

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 4 - Quality Education
• 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Date created

• 12/13/2023

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Source

• E-project-121323-022724

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2024-02-08