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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1527846
This article is part of the Research Topic Invention Education and STEM: Perspectives and Possibilities View all 8 articles
Developing a use-inspired school and community-based 6 th through 12 th -grade research and invention ecosystem leading to STEM careers: An ethnographic study of the Science Coach program
Provisionally accepted- 1 Kalainoff Consulting and Research, LLC, Colorado Springs, United States
- 2 Ohio University, Athens, West Virginia, United States
- 3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- 4 Science Coach, St. Louis, MO, United States
This study responds to the need for educational offerings for middle and high school students that develop students’ awareness of STEM degrees and careers and foster positive attitudes, confidence, and students’ ability to see themselves in STEM fields. Theories and methodologies from interactional ethnography guide our examination of ways Science Coach (SC) addresses these needs by educating and supporting 6th- 12th-grade science teachers and their students as students identify and solve real problems through authentic research and invention. In this system-level study conducted alongside the program’s Executive Director (CEO), we document and analyze the actors, roles, and relationships to (re)present the SC use-inspired research and invention ecosystem. We also analyze student outcome data collected by the program to examine what is socially accomplished by the actors within the ecosystem. Six design principles guiding SC emerge from our analysis. The student outcomes we document emerge from data elements that SC has chosen to collect as indicators of their success. Analysis of student surveys shows that of the 12th-grade students matriculating from the program since 2019 (n=611) who shared their college degree choice in the final questionnaire (n=234), 91.4% of students (n=214) and 94.8% of underrepresented minority (URM) students (n=55) self-reported that they were pursuing a STEM degree or career after participating in one or more years of SC. With the growing need for STEM and STEM-related opportunities for all, learning and career readiness programs like SC serve as a potentially scalable model for bridging this gap.
Keywords: use-inspired research1, authentic STEM research program2, invention education3, Science Coach4, research and invention ecosystem5, STEM career pathway6
Received: 13 Nov 2024; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kalainoff, Bazouche, Couch and Ott. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Melinda Kalainoff, Kalainoff Consulting and Research, LLC, Colorado Springs, United States
Stephanie Renee Couch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.