Virtual Collaboration in the Age of COVID-19: Supporting Youth as Co-Researchers

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted teaching and learning in K-12 settings, as many public schools lacked the technological tools and techniques needed to support effective virtual meetings and online learning. In this article, we explore the impact of the pandemic on Youth Built Change (YBC), a STEM-pipeline partnership between two high schools and a university. In YBC university researchers work with high school juniors to conduct research on substance abuse and addiction in their local school communities. As a school-university partnership which emphasizes multiple types of collaboration (e.g., among students within research teams, between research teams and teachers, between research teams and university research mentors, and between teachers and university research mentors), YBC challenged traditional approaches to teaching and learning before the pandemic. In light of the ways in which the pandemic exacerbated those challenges, and brought forth new ones, this article addresses tools and strategies that were used in YBC to engage students as researchers, insights gained about collaborative work in a virtual environment, and the impact of this year on the YBC program going forward.

“Anyone Can Be a Researcher”: Findings from the MYHealth Virtual Summer Research Training Program for High School Students from Historically Marginalized Groups

“…In addition to pragmatic advantages, there is growing evidence that STEM outreach programs for high school students can be successfully implemented online (Hurse et al, 2021;Ufnar et al 2021;Watts-Taffe, et al, 2021). Several programs that were adapted to online environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic have reported high levels of acceptability among high school students and positive impacts on student outcomes, including scientific knowledge, scientific identity, and comfort with scientific tasks.…”