Engaging Scientific Diasporas in STEAM Education: The Case of Science Clubs Colombia

Bryann E Avendano-Uribe; Andres Lombana-Bermudez; Laura V Flórez; Elisa Chaparro; Adriana Carolina Hernandez-Morales; Jorge Archbold; Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas; Ana Maria Porras

doi:10.3389/frma.2022.898167

Engaging Scientific Diasporas in STEAM Education: The Case of Science Clubs Colombia

Front Res Metr Anal. 2022 Jun 28:7:898167. doi: 10.3389/frma.2022.898167. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Bryann E Avendano-Uribe^{1

2

3}, Andres Lombana-Bermudez^{1

4

5}, Laura V Flórez^{1

6}, Elisa Chaparro¹, Adriana Carolina Hernandez-Morales^{1

7}, Jorge Archbold^{1

8}, Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas^{1

9}, Ana Maria Porras¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ ScienteLab, Bogota, Colombia.
² HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
³ Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
⁴ Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
⁵ Department of Communication, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.
⁶ Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁷ The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, United States.
⁸ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia.
⁹ Space Sciences Laboratory and Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
¹⁰ Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.

Abstract

Currently, there is limited insight on the role that scientific diasporas can play in STEAM education in Latin America. Here, we present the Science Clubs Colombia (Clubes de Ciencia Colombia-SCC) program, a pioneering STEAM capacity-building initiative led by volunteer scientists to engage youth and children from underserved communities in science. The program brings together researchers based in Colombia and abroad to lead intensive project-based learning workshops for young students in urban and rural areas. These projects focus on channeling the students' technical and cognitive scientific aptitudes to tackle challenges of both local and global relevance. The program provides high-quality STEAM education adapted to communities' needs and articulates long-lasting international collaborations using the mobility of the Colombian diaspora. The program's success is tangible via its sustained growth and adaptability. Since its first version in 2015, 722 volunteer scientists living abroad or in Colombia have collaborated to create 364 clubs with the participation of 9,295 students. We describe elements of the SCC program that lead to a scalable and reproducible outcome to engage science diasporas in STEAM education. Additionally, we discuss the involvement of multiple stakeholders and the generation of international networks as potential science diplomacy outcomes. The SCC program strengthens the involvement of Latin American youth in science, demonstrates the potential of engaging scientific diasporas in science education, and enriches connections between the Global South and the Global North.

Keywords: Colombian scientists; K-12 education; STEAM education; educational policy; scientific diasporas; scientific vocations.