Fostering science: Using science education to empower youth in foster care

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Christa Mulder, Steve Decina and Theresa Villano, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, Katie Villano Spellman, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK

Background/Question/Methods
Youth in care of the state are much less likely to attend college than other youth. They are also underrepresented in summer enrichment camps, including science camps. In Alaska, approximately half of foster youth are Alaska Native (compared to 15% of all youth in Alaska). Fostering Science (now in its fifth year) is a "science adventure camp" designed specifically to serve youth in foster care. We provide a week-long day camp at the Bonanza Creek LTER site and a 4-day overnight camp in Denali National Park. Activities are designed to connect youth to the environment and to their community, and to emphasize collaboration to solve complex, real-world problems. Campers participate in a wide range of hands-on, place-based activities that focus on feeling comfortable outdoors, natural history, and ecology. Example activities include building wilderness "survival shelters", learning how to track hares, making model soil profiles from snack foods, carrying out leaf decomposition experiments, and performing skits that incorporate ethnobotany and medicinal uses of plants. Guest scientists expose youth to different aspects of science and job opportunities, while guest artists provide other approaches to exploring the natural world, such as painting and dance. We also include elements designed to strengthen socio-emotional skills throughout the activities.
Results/Conclusions
A program evaluation indicated that the most important component of camp for campers is the connections they make with instructors and to youth in a similar situation to theirs. These connections have been further demonstrated by the repeated attendance of the vast majority of campers across multiple years. The youth report that camp changed how they thought about the future. The majority also reported having an increased appreciation for science, with about half reporting that they consider science as a potential career path. These results confirm our belief that these types of experiences can provide benefits to individual youth and may increase their participation in ecology.