Fostering Spaces for Black Joy in STEM-Rich Making and Beyond

What does it mean to express Black joy and loving blackness through STEM-rich making? What does it mean for Black youth in community-based, youth-focused makerspaces to express Black joy and loving blackness? We look at how Black youth alongside their facilitators co-create spaces of Black joy through making. These makerspaces are located at two local Boys and Girls Clubs in the US Midwest and the Southeast. Makerspaces are informal sites where youth are encouraged to work collaboratively while building digital and physical artifacts. As two Black female STEM educators working with Black youth we frame our work in critical race theory. Specifically we draw on the tenets of whiteness as property and counter-narratives. Using critical ethnographic methods, we explore the ways in which Black youth produce counter-narratives that disrupt whiteness as property through STEM-rich making. Data sources include fieldnotes; artifacts, such as youth work; interviews; and video recordings. The first vignette highlights how two Black girls navigate choosing and creating characters using Scratch. The second vignette focuses on a brother and sister duo who center their making on family and their shared maker identity. We then discuss the freedoms afforded to youth with flexible co-designed curriculum with facilitators and how we foster open spaces. We address this special issue’s driving question by asking, How do we, as STEM facilitators, counter anti-blackness in/through STEM by fostering space for Black joy with youth in making?

Injuries on the Youth Soccer (Football) Field: Do Additional Referees Reduce Risk? Randomized Crossover Trial

Objective Youth soccer injury can be prevented through various means, but few studies consider the role of referees. Following previous research suggesting children take fewer risks when supervised intensely, this randomized crossover trial evaluated whether risky play and injuries decrease under supervision from three referees instead of one referee. Methods Youth soccer clubs serving a metropolitan U.S. area participated. Boys’ and girls’ clubs at under age 10 (U10) and under age 11 (U11) levels were randomly assigned such that when the same clubs played each other twice in the same season, they played once with one referee and once with three referees. A total of 98 games were videotaped and subsequently coded to obtain four outcomes: collisions between players, aggressive fouls (involving physical player-to-player contact) called by the referee(s) on the field, aggressive fouls judged by trained coders, and injuries requiring adult attention or play stoppage. Results Poisson mixed model results suggest players in the 98 games committed fewer aggressive fouls, as identified independently by referees (rate ratio [RR] 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.35–0.96) and by researchers (RR 0.67; 95% CI 0.50–0.90), when there were three referees versus one referee. Collisions (RR 0.98; 95% CI 0.86–1.12) and injury rates (RR 1.15; 95% CI 0.60–2.19) were similar across conditions. Conclusion When the same youth soccer clubs played with three referees rather than one, they committed fewer aggressive fouls. More intense supervision created better rule adherence. Injury rates were unchanged with increased supervision. Results raise questions concerning whether financial investment in additional referees on youth soccer fields yields safety benefits.

Youth Community Gardening Programming as Community Development: The Youth for EcoAction Program in Winnipeg, Canada

The Youth for EcoAction (YEA) program is a project of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg involving at-risk youth. This community development program focuses on urban agriculture and community gardening and was developed using the Circle of Courage pedagogy. The program was analyzed through participatory methods. YEA youth interns built skills, improved self-esteem, increased environmental awareness, enhanced food security, and fostered their own social networks to help counter the attraction to gangs and dealing with other issues. Benefits were also felt at a broader community level, through positive environmental, social, and physical changes. Youth-serving agencies, community development organizations, and government policy makers could look to the YEA as a model for youth empowerment and community revitalization. Le programme Youth for EcoAction (YEA) pour les jeunes à risque est l’œuvre des Clubs garçons et filles de Winnipeg. Il met l’accent sur l’agriculture urbaine et le jardinage communautaire. Les Clubs ont développé YEA en recourant à la pédagogie du Cercle du courage. Pour analyser ce programme, les auteurs de cet article ont employé une méthode participative. Pour les jeunes, les bénéfices de YEA incluent le développement de compétences, une sécurité alimentaire accrue et la formation de réseaux qui les aident à échapper à la tentation des gangs et autres problèmes. À un niveau communautaire, les bénéfices comprennent des améliorations environnementales, sociales et physiques. Pour les agences jeunesse, les organismes de développement communautaire et les stratèges gouvernementaux, le programme YEA peut servir de modèle d’autonomisation des jeunes et de revitalisation de la communauté.

NikeGO: a Corporate-Sponsored Program to Increase Physical Activity and Foster Youth Development

NikeGO was initiated in 2002 by the Nike US Community Affairs Division to address a growing need: to provide youth a safe environment in which to be physically active. Nike collaborated with several organizations across the country and offered an array of programs to foster developmentally appropriate physical activity among youth through their influencers (e.g., teachers, coaches). These programs reached youth in underserved areas ranging from urban inner cities to rural Native lands through various channels and settings including schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA’s, youth sports organizations, and others. Objective and subjective measures were used to determine the reach of the program, the dose of physical activity, the “fun” level of the activities, changes in youths’ self-esteem and self-concept, and the likelihood of continued participation. Many older youth gained leadership skills in the process. Overall, the programs have been successful in reaching “hard to reach” youth and engaging them in the positive, developmentally sensitive, health behaviors.