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Youth Lead the Way

Learning Communities Mobilized

A Youth Advisory Research Board Model for Climate Impact Education
2020–2023

YouthCARE members at OMSI sign

Project Description

We want to involve youth in addressing challenges that face their communities–specifically climate impact. We hired 15 youth to create a Youth Advisory Research Board (YARB) at OMSI. These youth honed their skills, advised on projects, developed creative activities to communicate about climate impact, and engaged the public as climate impact educators.

We also had our research team explore the factors of the YARB that empower youth to engage in climate impact education as ISL (informal STEM learning) professionals. We think that our findings will help to guide informal science educators who want to include the youth voice in their work and inspire researchers to more deeply explore the YARB model.

Youth engaged in conversation
YARB members engaged in conversation

Project Resources

Research and Evaluation Activities

Research

A Youth Advisory Research Board in a science center: an empowering setting for collective action
Youth Lead the Way: Science Centers can Foster Empowering Settings for Youth-Led Climate Action

Evaluation

Program Evaluation Report
Public Events Evaluation Report
Youth Lead the Way Professional Development Evaluation Report

Professional Development Materials

How to Work with Youth Guide
Working with youth as colleagues and creating empowering settings
Guide to supporting a science center-based Youth Advisory Research Board
YARB meeting
YARB members planning their projects

Youth Activities

Youth Created Deliverables

Youth Advising Projects

  • Developing earthquake safety activities for ShakeAlert®/USGS
  • Researching sustainable exhibit materials
  • Waterfront Education Park research
  • Natural Sciences Hall visioning
  • Revising signage and activities for OMSI labs including Chemistry, Life, Earth, and Physics
  • Exhibit Development Advising for Creatividad silvestre | Wild Creativity—Biomimicry transforming the world

Presentations

Herrán, C. & Randol, S. M. (2023, May 22 – 26). Supporting youth empowerment through social science research preparation. [Poster presentation]. Annual conference of the Citizen Science Association, Tempe, AZ, United States. https://omsi.edu/c_sci-poster/

Reilly, Rebecca. (2023, May 5 – 6). Including teen voices in non-education museum departments [Professional development workshop]. Sciencenter, Ithaca, NY.

Randol, S. M. & Herrán, C. (2022, November 1). Evaluating Youth Perceptions of Climate Action with Personal Meaning Mapping. [Conference presentation]. ASTC Virtual 2022.

Reilly, R., Barrientos, F., & Lyday, C. (2022, October 6-9). Looking Ahead: Museums and Youth Collaborating in Climate Justice [Conference Session]. 2022 WMA Annual Meeting, Portland.

Shagott, T. (2022, September 12-15). Youth Lead the Way: Museums Learning With and From Youth to Advance Climate Action [Conference Session]. 2022 ASTC Annual Conference, Pittsburgh.

Lyday, C., Hüttmann, I., & Reilly, R. (2022, May 19-22). Youth Lead the Way: How Museums and Youth can Collaborate to Advance Climate Justice. [Poster presentation]. 2022 AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Boston. https://omsi.edu/aam_poster/

Partners

Sciencenter, Ithaca NY

Contact

Scott Randol, SRandol@omsi.edu

Funders

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-2005678. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.