Engaging Rural Youth in Multidisciplinary Inquiry through Archaeology
Team members from Binghamton University’s Public Archaeology Facility (PAF), the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership (TLEL), and the Binghamton University Community Schools (BUCS) were awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through their Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL)Pilots and Feasibility Studies project to advance informal STEM learning through an afterschool enrichment program. The team will use the science of archaeology to engage middle school learners (Grades 6-8) from underserved rural areas in an afterschool program. Informal learning modules will focus on the STEM fields of biology, physics, mathematics, and ecology, all disciplines employed daily by archaeologists.
Youth will use archaeological data derived from artifacts to test hypotheses about how precontact Indigenous people made and used tools, acquired and prepared food, practiced sustainable land use patterns, and situated their communities on the landscape. The youth will be linked to a citizen science project that will provide the raw data (specific artifact types) for their study. Youth will develop research projects that obtain data from artifacts to test hypotheses about how precontact Indigenous people made and used tools, acquired and prepared food, practiced sustainable land use patterns, and situated their communities on the landscape. Indigenous consultants from the Onondaga Nation will present traditional knowledge on STEM concepts to inform our learning modules by bringing their voices and worldviews directly into the afterschool programs. The objective is to create, implement, and refine an informal afterschool program based on archaeological science to support and engage youth as multidisciplinary STEM learners. The central hypothesis is that a program using exciting archaeological discoveries and Indigenous knowledge will provide a stimulating learning environment and will produce a positive impact on learners (youth and citizen scientists) as they develop a stronger affinity with STEM. A Binghamton University internal evaluator from TLEL as well as an external advisory board consisting of experts from the fields of education and archaeology. and an Indigenous educator will provide feedback to improve the teaching techniques and outcomes.
Intellectual Merit
The proposed study is unique in that little to no scholarship exists on the extent of supporting and engaging youth as multidisciplinary STEM learners through a research-based afterschool experience in archaeology. Hence, the first objective is to develop a hands-on informal program that will encourage youth to become STEM learners. The working hypothesis is that through developing, implementing, and refining the informal afterschool program based on archaeology, researchers will gain an understanding of effective ways to support and engage youth as multidisciplinary STEM learners. The second objective is to examine shifts in youth’s multidisciplinary STEM identity resulting from participation in the program. The working hypothesis is that youth will exhibit a positive shift in her/his STEM identity through engagement in the archaeology afterschool program. A third objective is to investigate how engagement in the archaeology afterschool program and ongoing professional development enhance the pedagogical practices of graduate/undergraduate students, citizen scientists, and professionals in the field of archaeology. The working hypothesis is that through participation in the program and professional development, graduate and undergraduate students, citizen scientists, and professionals in the field of archaeology will develop and/or build upon their current pedagogical practices as informal educators.
Broader Impacts
The proposed pilot and feasibility project will create an afterschool STEM program that includes citizen scientists, experts in the field of archaeology and education, and graduate/undergraduate students training to be effective science educators. The main impact of this project will be to expose middle schoolers in New York’s Southern Tier – a rural underserved area – to STEM using scientific discoveries in archaeology related to STEM fields and linking these to data from a citizen science project. In public programs and web pages, the participants will share the results of their research projects, giving them experience in interpreting and disseminating their research results as well as providing the local community with information on the archaeology and history of their region. Matriculated undergraduate and graduate students who will help implement the program will gain valuable experience in educational theory and research as well as science communication, skills that will be beneficial in their future careers in both archaeology and education. The results of this pilot and feasibility study will be disseminated locally to colleagues in the State University of New York (SUNY) system, regionally to informal learning centers, and nationally in conference papers and publications.