C&RL News September 2019 434 Using a STEM conference model is a meth-od for creating social change among un- derrepresented student populations. Through outreach to local schools, university libraries can help pre-college students gain a better understanding of STEM fields and can ul- timately a t t r a c t m o r e minority students t o c a - reers in science, technol- ogy, en- gineer- ing, and m a t h - e m a t - ics. For e i g h t y e a r s , the Uni- v e r s i t y of Tennessee (UT) Libraries has hosted a STEM conference for local middle and high school students. Bridging the STEM Gap Bridging the gap of minority students in STEM fields is a national challenge for uni- versities. As the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering points out in their report, “Confronting the ‘New’ American Di- lemma,” in order for our nation to maintain leadership in STEM fields and competitive- ness in the global economy, we must acti- vate the hidden workforce of young men and women who have traditionally been un- derrepresented in STEM careers.1 No source of tal- ent can be left on the s i d e - l i n e s . As Lisa T s u i n o t e s , t h e f a s t e s t growing portion of the school- a g e popu- l a t i o n is mi- nority students and they represent a great potential pool of future entrants into STEM fields.2 Thura Mack and Savanna Draper Assessment and social change Empowering underserved students to reimagine their future through STEM outreach Thura Mack is professor at University of Tennessee Libraries, email: tmack@utk.edu, and Savanna Draper is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee School of Information Science, email: sdraper1@vols.utk.edu © 2019 Thura Mack and Savanna Draper Students participating in the workshop “Virtual Reality: An Introduction to Total Immersion,” presented by members from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. mailto:sdraper1%40vols.utk.edu?subject= September 2019 435 C&RL News So what can universities and secondary schools do to make STEM fields more attrac- tive to this underrepresented population? One recent assessment of U.S. competitiveness in the global market noted, “National initiatives to increase minority students’ presence in [STEM] fields focus on students’ motivations and intentions to complete high school and attend college.”3 Academic libraries are the ideal platform to initiate programs that can inspire students to set their sights on college and STEM careers. They have the infrastruc- ture in place to put STEM into a con- text that is inclusive and inviting. Aca- demic librar- ies are likely t o h a v e technology in place, as well as exist- ing partner- ships with S T E M o r - ganizations a n d o t h e r educators at their institutions that allow them to present STEM topics in the library’s wel- coming environment. Intentionally creating programs for underserved populations allows students to make informed decisions about opportunities in STEM fields and to imagine themselves in STEM careers. Big Orange STEM Saturday Big Orange STEM Saturday (BOSS) began approximately eight years ago. It started as a daylong symposium and then grew into a mini-conference. Over the years, the confer- ence has grown tremendously, and atten- dance has nearly tripled in size. The growth can be partially attributed to our partner, the UT’s College Access and Persistence Services (CAPS) Outreach Center. The CAPS Outreach Center is a grant-funded program that provides services to help students over- come social, academic, financial, and cultur- al barriers in higher education. Research has shown that universities face major problems in recruiting and retaining low-income and first-generation students. The CAPS Out- reach Center provides services to individu- als from disadvantaged backgrounds to pre- pare them to succeed in postsecondary or professional academic programs, including activities to strengthen the math and science skills of students interested in STEM fields. Working with the CAPS Outreach Center has made it possible for BOSS to reach the desired un- d e r s e r v e d demograph- ics. T h e BOSS con- ference has three pillars: h a n d s - o n workshops, an exhibitor fair, and a keynote fa- cilitator who includes an interactive activity. Every year, the BOSS team releases a call for proposals to handpick eight workshops and one keynote activity. Along with this process, we also reach out to university and community partners to get groups and orga- nizations to take part in the exhibitor fair. We work with the University Libraries’ Marketing Department to create promotional materials and programs for the conference. We create a budget to include lunch for all, UT Librar- ies brand giveaways, and honorarium for a keynote speaker. Another large part of the conference planning logistics is maintaining the BOSS website and registration process. The student experience Presenting STEM information in a confer- ence setting like BOSS allows pre-college students to experience key educational Future scientists taking a photo opportunity. C&RL News September 2019 436 trends and to explore college or careers in manageable bits. Students are introduced to a multitude of STEM-related majors and careers at a halfday conference at UT’s pre- mier research university. BOSS offers sev- eral sessions about various STEM topics, and each student gets to participate in two hands-on sessions based on their STEM tracks and interests. Throughout this STEM initiative, an ef- fective methodology is put into place to engage and introduce students to skills they will need to develop in order to study STEM. Participants are also introduced to career planning programs and other support systems available to them as new students at institutions of higher education. This cus- t o m i z e d l e a r n i n g e x p e r i - ence is de- signed to fill a com- m o n e x - periential gap among an under- s e r v e d p o p u l a - t i o n t h a t is likely to include many first-generation college stu- dents. It is important to create an enjoyable experience for the students and to convince them that STEM can be fun. It has been noted that “using library spaces to design and facilitate confer- ences for high school students changes traditional mindsets about how libraries can promote college preparedness.”4 Showcasing the academic library and its integral role in scholarship demonstrates the library’s dedication to student suc- cess and college preparation. UT’s BOSS program “presents educational and career opportunities in the STEM areas and aims to prepare pre-college students for higher education classroom experiences.”5 Gathering feedback Having access to information about par- ticipants’ experience in outreach endeavors such as BOSS is essential to the program’s longevity and success. For the past eight years, the responses of students participat- ing in BOSS have confirmed that hands-on learning is their preferred method of engage- ment as opposed to a textbook or lecture ap- proach. Studies indicate that exposing youth to STEM through hands-on activities teaches young people the art of problem-solving and the value of perseverance.6 Using hands-on l e a r n i n g m a k e s STEM ed- u c a t i o n more at- tractive to s t u d e n t s . Every stu- dent intro- duced to STEM at these con- f e r e n c e s is allowed to explore o p t i o n s they never t h o u g h t possible. According to the most recent data from the 2018 BOSS Conference, 95 percent of students agreed that following the conference they had a better understanding of STEM edu- cation, college preparation, and career options at UT and universities in general. At the end of the 2018 conference, surveys were administered to students electronically using data collection tools that were already familiar to many of the participating students through previous interactions with the Out- reach Center. The survey instrument used to gather the data included a combination of short answers, Likert, and multiple-choice questions. The UT Libraries used NVivo Students engaged in a workshop presented by students from the Uni- versity of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering. September 2019 437 C&RL News qualitative data analysis software to analyze the surveys. By using qualitative coding in NVivo, librarians were able to examine the feedback more thoroughly, to see correlations between questions, and to verify assumptions that informed the conference design. When assessment surveys were admin- istered to conference participants, the most frequent reason for attendance selected was participation in the CAPS program. This is to be expected, given that the UT Libraries’ primary conference partner is the CAPS pro- gram, and one of the major goals of the event is to expose underserved student populations to poten- t i a l c o l - lege ma- jors and c a r e e r s that they might not consider o t h e r - wise. The r e s u l t s s h o w e d w h i c h s p e c i f i c S T E M programs s t u d e n t s preferred, a n d t h e general division of popularity supported inter- est in engineering compared to the popularity of other programs. Data analysis also revealed that 100 percent of students indicated they did un- derstand STEM better when asked, “Did you have a better understanding of STEM follow- ing the conference?” This particular question is important because it can help gauge the quality of the event and the sessions. It also demonstrates an interest in STEM from all students who attended. A majority of partici- pants indicated that the event increased their STEM knowledge (40 respondents out of 84), gave them a better overall understanding of STEM (35 respondents), and helped them un- derstand more aspects of career planning (32 respondents). Based on the overall response to this question, librarians can demonstrate that BOSS has a positive effect on the stu- dents who attend. Making teachers aware of the feedback re- ceived from the students during these confer- ences would allow the teachers to implement these findings in the high school curriculum, and prompts the question, “What more could teachers do for students in the classroom?” Giving the teachers evidence of the confer- ence findings will be justification for them to consider building a more robust curriculum to reflect these find- ings. This w o u l d create an e f f e c t i v e l e a r n i n g l i t e r a c y cycle: the s t u d e n t s make new discover- i e s , t h e discover- i e s a r e analyzed and cod- e d , a n d the find- ings are then shared with teachers and school administrators. Conclusion Conference models such as BOSS grant stu- dents a voice and allow them to become part of the conversation about their futures in STEM. Feedback from the UT Libraries’ 2019 STEM conference, for example, suggested that elements of STEM literacy might be produc- tively incorporated into high school curricula. Surveys of student participants are key to re- ceiving vital feedback that documents an out- reach program’s strengths and weaknesses. With these findings, it is possible to imple- Students participating in keynote activity, “Creating ‘Retro’ Video Games with Lua and PICO-8.” (continues on page 450) C&RL News September 2019 450 ship Study Grant (sponsored by the Walter de Gruyter Foundation for Scholarship and Research): €2,500 grant. Supports research in European studies with an emphasis on librarianship, the book trade, resource docu- mentation, and similar information-science related topics. Publications • Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab Exhibition Catalogue Awards (spon- sored by Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab, American Book Prices Current): recognizes outstanding catalogs published by American or Canadian institutions in con- junction with library exhibitions. Deadline: October 15, 2019. • Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Pub- lication of the Year Award: (sponsored by Carrick Enterprises): $1,000 award. Recog- nizes an outstanding publication related to instruction in a library environment published in the last two years. • Science and Technology Section Oberly Award for Bibliography in the Agricultural or Natural Sciences: This bi- ennial award is given in odd-numbered years for the best English-language bibliography in the field of agriculture or a related science. For more information about the ACRL Awards Program, visit the Awards & Scholar- ships section of our website at www.ala.org/ acrl/ or contact ACRL Program Officer Chase Ollis at collis@ala.org. We welcome your nominations and look forward to celebrating achievements in aca- demic librarianship in 2020. ment new ideas and create social change in the futures of underserved students. Looking forward to 2020 and beyond, the BOSS initiative will take a radical step with the creation of BOSS in a Box, a portable STEM literacy tool. An extension of the BOSS program, BOSS in a Box will enable BOSS to continue to branch out and impact the college and career options for students. It will provide a way to more directly influence students and teachers with a visual learning package that sets out to create experiential learning for students pursuing STEM majors and careers. It will help students achieve customized learning experiences through a multitude of available programs and expansive options to enable them to move forward after the initial lesson. In the future, it is our hope that BOSS will continue to grow and implement new concepts to increase students’ interest in STEM. Notes 1. Lisa M. Frehill, Nicole M. Di Fabio, and Susan T. Hill, “Confronting the ‘New’ American Dilemma—Underrepresented Minorities in Engineering: A Data-Based Look at Diversity,” National Action Council for Minorities in Engi- neering, 2008. 2. Tsui Lisa, “Effective Strategies to Increase Diversity in STEM Fields: A Review of the Re- search Literature,” Journal of Negro Education 76, no. 4 (2007). 3. Christopher Ball et al., “Invaluable Val- ues: An Expectancy-Value Theory Analysis of Youth’s Academic Motivations and Intentions,” Information, Communication, & Society 19, no. 5 (2016). 4. Kenya Flash et al., “Stem Bridges: Evolu- tion of an Academic Library Stem Outreach Program,” Journal of Library Administration 57, no. 8 (2017). 5. Ibid. 6. Tracey A. Overbey, Daniel S. Dotson, and Molly Myers LaBadie, “Public Libraries and Higher Education Combining Efforts to Create Quality Stem Children’s Pro- grams,” Public Library Quarterly 37, no. 1 (2018). (“Assessment and social change,” continues from page 437) http://www.ala.org/acrl/ http://www.ala.org/acrl/