Abstract
Abstract This paper reports on a campus-community partnership between Angelo State University and Tom Green County Library. These organizations have partnered for several years to provide one-week summer STEM outreach programs to pre-college students in the San Angelo region of West Texas. These programs have been traditionally targeted at middle school students from underrepresented groups, focusing particularly on Latinx and female students. The programs, originally designed for traditional face-to-face delivery, were completely redesigned to incorporate infection control protocols brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Content for the programs was reduced from multiple topics to a single topic to reduce preparation demands. The delivery method was changed to a hybrid program with an at-home build segment, supported by online content, combined with a socially distanced on-site testing day. The change also moved the student focus from individuals to family units. In spite of the significant hurdles created by COVID-19 protocols, the programs were redesigned and successfully completed. The participants were highly diverse with 70 percent coming from underrepresented minority groups. Completion rate of the program was high at 79 percent. The majority of projects were completed by family units, bringing a new dynamic to the programs. The paper reports on the process of program redesign, strategy for attracting students from underrepresented groups, successes, and failures of the programs. The paper highlights the impact of campus-community partnerships (Kania and Kramer, 2011; Bringle and Hatcher, 2002; Kezar, 2010) in program development and execution, the value of family participation and the benefit of a hybrid at-home/socially distanced model for conducting STEM outreach programs. The hybrid model developed has a number of advantages to traditional face-to-face programs and can be adapted for a wide range of STEM outreach programs.
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