Greensmith Christine, Greensmith David
De La Salle School, Saint Helens, WA10 4QH, United Kingdom.
Biomedical Research and Innovation Centre, The University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, United Kingdom.
Curr Res Physiol. 2025 Jun 11;8:100151. doi: 10.1016/j.crphys.2025.100151. eCollection 2025.
When considering the diversity of students in higher education, an important but frequently overlooked characteristic is socioeconomic background. It is well known that those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to progress to higher education, and accounts for an associated lack of diversity in the STEM workplace. The reasons for this are many and complex, though a lack of awareness of STEM-based education thence career pathways among secondary school learners remains a key contributor. To address this, we designed an adaptable and scalable high school outreach programme that sought to raise STEM (with a focus on bioscience) awareness through events that could be readily adapted to meet high school needs and resource constraints. Learner perceptions were recorded using a pre- and post-event questionnaire. Following the event, awareness of bioscience-based careers and the required prerequisite skills and qualifications were increased by 58 and 53 % respectively. The degree to which learners were considering a bioscience-based career was increased by 43 %. Though interest in attending university to study STEM was unaltered, awareness of the qualifications required to progress to university was increased by 58 %. These findings suggest that outreach events are an effective way to raise general awareness of STEM-based higher education learning thence careers and highlight the importance of tailoring outreach events to meet school and learner needs.
在考虑高等教育学生的多样性时，一个重要但经常被忽视的特征是社会经济背景。众所周知，来自社会弱势背景的人进入高等教育的可能性较小，这也是导致STEM工作场所缺乏多样性的一个相关因素。造成这种情况的原因众多且复杂，不过中学学习者对基于STEM的教育及其职业道路缺乏了解仍是一个关键因素。为了解决这一问题，我们设计了一个适应性强且可扩展的高中外展项目，该项目旨在通过能够轻松适应高中需求和资源限制的活动来提高对STEM（以生物科学为重点）的认识。使用活动前后的问卷记录学习者的看法。活动结束后，对基于生物科学的职业以及所需的先决技能和资格的认识分别提高了58%和53%。考虑从事基于生物科学职业的学习者比例提高了43%。虽然参加大学学习STEM的兴趣没有改变，但对进入大学所需资格的认识提高了58%。这些发现表明，外展活动是提高对基于STEM的高等教育学习及其职业的总体认识的有效方式，并突出了根据学校和学习者需求定制外展活动的重要性。
