Division C of AERA has sponsored a Youth Conference for the past three years as part of the Annual Meeting. The goal of the conference is to expose K-12 students to the process and practice of education research by participating in research interventions and then unpacking the science that goes into developing and evaluating them.
We started the Youth Conference for the first time in NYC with approximately 25 students, since then we have hosted around 80 students a year, along with teachers and chaperones. We received great feedback from both the students and the AERA members who helped support the conference by actively engaging with the students.
During the conference we offer three workshops that students attend in small groups. The workshops focus on hands-on education research activities, for example, like developing code to move robots and then exploring the strategic processing that the task requires.
However, what makes the program really work are the Education Researchers (you) who join the conference as group facilitators. These members work with a small group of students (n=5-8) throughout the conference to ensure a consistent and meaningful experience. They facilitate small group activities and help the students to make connections across the various activities they experience during the conference.
We need people who are comfortable with Education Research and Middle School Students and are willing (able) to serve as small group facilitators for the duration of the youth conference. We also just need help managing things if you’re not comfortable working with students (just let us know!).
The youth conference will be held on Wednesday, April 10th from 8:30am-noon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center – room 204 AB.
If you are interested and able to help out please fill out this google form and we will be in touch: https://forms.gle/