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Background A common rationale for integrating computational thinking (CT) in science curricula has been the opportunity to increase learning outcomes in both CT and science. While evidence shows that learning to code to create computer models of scientific phenomena improves students’ CT, few studies have demonstrated equivalent increases in science learning. This study aims to investigate the impact of a CT integration curriculum featuring “decoding”, or explicitly mapping between mechanisms in code and processes in science, on science learning, specifically about ecosystems, and CT across three cohorts of middle school students focusing on their survey scores and artifact-based interviews. Results Our research involved 70 middle school students, 38 of whom received the intervention and 32 of whom were in the control. In this mixed-methods study, quantitative analysis of pre-, post- and continuation survey data was used to measure the impact of decoding and case studies were used to elucidate how students’ science and CT learning were impacted by decoding. We found that the treatment group students from all three cohort years (n = 46) on average significantly improved their KSCT scores after the workshop with an effect size in the high range (Cohen’s d = .96). Through the analysis of rich and thick qualitative data collected through artifact-based interviews, we identified how decoding skills impacted students’ reasoning about scientific phenomena, and how students used their decoding skills to make sense of a new scientific phenomenon. Conclusions This study adds to the literature on CT integration in science education by elucidating an approach to deepen science learning and CT synergistically through the study of mechanisms. The findings from this study indicate that CT integration using the Decoding Approach yielded student gains in science learning and CT. Our research also advances knowledge of how and why CT integration, specifically through decoding, can support science learning and CT. Evidence from four qualitative cases that shows how students use coded mechanisms as an “active” and “executable” representation with which to reason about scientific phenomena while decoding. The research highlights that students do not need to make computer models from scratch to benefit from CT integration. We show that decoding models made by others is a valuable learning opportunity that impacts students’ MR, decoding skills, and science learning. The results from this study imply there are untapped opportunities for students to gain an understanding of ecosystems, and in some cases transfer that understanding to new systems, through the integration of CT with a particular emphasis on decoding.

Purpose This study evaluates the effectiveness of a machine learning (ML) integrated science curriculum implemented within the Science Research Mentorship Program (SRMP) for high school youth at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) over 2 years. The 4-week curriculum focused on ML knowledge gain, skill development, and self-efficacy, particularly for under-represented youth in STEM. Background ML is increasingly prevalent in STEM fields, making early exposure to ML methods and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy crucial for youth pursuing STEM careers. However, STEM fields, particularly those focused on AI research and development, suffer from a lack of diversity. Learning experiences that support the participation of under-represented groups in STEM and ML are essential to addressing this gap. Results Participant learning was assessed through pre- and post-surveys measuring ML knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. Results from the implementation of the curriculum show that participants gained understanding of ML knowledge and skills ( p  < 0.001, d  = 1.083) and self-efficacy in learning ML concepts ( p  = 0.004, d  = 0.676). On average, participants who identified as female and non-white showed greater learning gains than their white male peers (ML knowledge: p  < 0.001, d  = 1.191; self-efficacy: p  = 0.006, d  = 0.631), decreasing gaps in ML knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy identified in pre-survey scores. Conclusions The ML-integrated curriculum effectively enhances students’ understanding and confidence in ML concepts, especially for under-represented groups in STEM, and provides a model for future ML education initiatives in informal science settings. We suggest that policy makers and school leaders take into account that high school age youth can learn ML concepts through integrated curricula while maintaining an awareness that curriculum effectiveness varies across demographic groups.

This article provides a cross-case study of three studies that utilized anti-adultist approaches to collaborating with youth as co-researchers. Drawing on reflections from both adults and youth, we present an analysis of three case studies of adult and youth experiences in planning, implementing, and conducting research studies aimed at centering youth perspectives. Findings include what adults and youth learned about the co-researching process and highlight the need for careful consideration of how both adults and youth can disrupt adultist power dynamics. We argue that amplifying youth co-researcher perspectives in research can create a mutually meaningful and empowering research process for both adults and youth by promoting more equitable relationships and participatory practices.

This review explores Jackson and Seiler’s “I am smart enough to study postsecondary science: A critical discourse analysis of latecomers’ identity construction in an online forum” by considering the analytic framework for figured worlds guiding this study. We consider the specific affordances of cultural production theory for examining how sociohistorical and cultural discourses of science as elite impact individuals at every level of education. We then extend this discussion by exploring how an informal learning space at a prestigious science museum was designed to explicitly tackle cultural discourses of science as elite that act as barriers to identification with science.

Hammerness et al feature the Science Research Mentoring Consortium. The Science Research Mentoring Consortium gives students who are underserved by inschool STEM programs the opportunity to engage in research with the support of mentor scientists. Founded in 2011, the Science Research Mentoring Consortium serves about 500 students annually at sites across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and it provides an encouraging example of how multiple institutions can work together to complement inschool learning. The entire program costs approximately$4,000 per student, and the total annual cost of roughly $ 2 million is only slightly more than New York City spends just to screen students for admission into school-based gifted and talented programs.

Out-of-school programs can offer personalized and meaningful learning experiences that deepen students’ knowledge and cater to their passions and interests, but it has been a painful reality that many such programs have been available only to students and families with privilege and resources. Karen Hammerness, Anna MacPherson, Preeti Gupta, Tramia Jackson, and Rachel Chaffee describe how the Science Research Mentoring Consortium in New York City gives students from underserved communities opportunities to engage in STEM activities alongside researchers at sites throughout the city. Students with a strong interest in and aptitude for science take classes after school or on weekends and conduct their own research with the support of mentors. The authors share the principles that undergird the program and that can be applied to similar mentoring partnership programs in other disciplines.

Bringing multimodal and ethnographic approaches together, this paper seeks to identify key considerations, limitations, and implications of using photographs as primary data. We offer a concrete example of an approach that capitalizes on a systematic look at how different modes work together to foreground unique aspects of participation, while intentionally and explicitly maintaining ethnographic sensitivities. Key contributions include what it means to \"trust\" photographs as data and use them for their strengths in evidence-careful ways, [multimodality, ethnography, photography, reflexivity, science education]

This dissertation study contributes to the research on filmmaking and identity development by exploring the ways that film production provided unique opportunities for a team of four girls to engage in science, to develop identities in science, and to see and understand science differently. Using social practice, identity, and feminist theory and New Literacies Studies as a theoretical lens and grounded theory and multimodality as analytic frameworks, I present findings that suggest that girls in this study authored identities and communicated and represented science in and through film in ways that drew on their social, cultural, and embodied resources and the material resources of the after-school science club. Findings from this study highlight the affordances of filmmaking as a venue for engaging in the disciplinary practices of science and for accessing and authoring identities in science.

Tumor-associated macrophages contribute to tumor progression and therapeutic resistance in breast cancer. Within the tumor microenvironment, tumor-derived factors activate pathways that modulate macrophage function. Using in vitro and in vivo models, we find that tumor-derived factors induce activation of the Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) pathway in macrophages. We also demonstrate that loss of STAT3 in myeloid cells leads to enhanced mammary tumorigenesis. Further studies show that macrophages contribute to resistance of mammary tumors to the JAK/STAT inhibitor ruxolitinib in vivo and that ruxolitinib-treated macrophages produce soluble factors that promote resistance of tumor cells to JAK inhibition in vitro. Finally, we demonstrate that STAT3 deletion and JAK/STAT inhibition in macrophages increases expression of the protumorigenic factor cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and that COX-2 inhibition enhances responsiveness of tumors to ruxolitinib. These findings define a mechanism through which macrophages promote therapeutic resistance and highlight the importance of understanding the impact of targeted therapies on the tumor microenvironment.

Nematodes that infect grazing herbivores rely on the ability of larvae to escape the fecal pat and ascend onto forage in order to be eaten by a subsequent host. However, pastures are polycultures of grasses and forbs that vary with respect to morphology and potential innate defense mechanisms acquired as part of their own co-evolution with nematode parasites. The objectives of this study were to 1) characterize the vertical distribution of Trichostrongylus colubriformis on a variety of plant species found in pastures in the Midwestern United States and 2) to identify plants that enhanced or inhibited larval ascent. Climbing assays were performed under greenhouse conditions whereby L3 were directly recovered from foliage. We found that at least 50% or more of the larvae were distributed on the first 2.5 cm closest to the soil surface for all plant species tested. In contrast, less than 10% of the larvae were distributed 12 cm or higher. For practical purposes, our findings agree with previous studies that suggest limiting grazing below a certain height to decrease parasite consumption. Further nuanced studies are needed to identify individual plant mechanical and chemical defenses that impact the ecology nematodes of veterinary importance.