The YouthAstroNet Program is funded by the National Science Foundation’s ITEST program (Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers). YouthAstroNet share’s ITEST’s mission to better understand how technology-rich experiences can promote student knowledge, interest, and dispositions to pursue STEM careers, focusing especially on the equitable participation of groups underserved and underrepresented in these fields.

Our research has shown that science identity—the feeling of “being a science person”, and being recognized by others as a science person—is an important ingredient in motivating young people to persist in STEM learning pathways. Our research also shows that astronomy can be a gateway to broader STEM interest.

Furthermore, the Essential Elements of the YouthAstroNet Experience—accessing real telescopes to pursue questions of personal interest; making sense of astronomical images through web-based analysis tools and hands-on activities; and youth-created capstone projects to communicate learning to peers, family and community—have been shown to produce gains in participants’ science identity and STEM career interest.

We Need YOU to Advance Learning Research!

Our goal now is to scale up the YouthAstroNet program so that educators and young people nationwide can experience the inspiration of asking and answering their own cosmic questions.

• How do we optimize professional learning opportunities for YouthAstroNet educators?

• How do the unique strengths of different educators and their environments contribute to student outcomes?

• In what ways do students benefit from having access to digital STEM role models?

By joining us now and contributing your unique talents to a YouthAstroNet implementation, you can contribute to our research into these questions.