How Culturally Responsive STEM Curriculum and Relatability Shift Middle School Perceptions of Belonging and Interest in Inventive Activities

This study examines associations between participation in a culturally responsive inventive learning experience featuring women engineers as guides and middle school students’ reported equity beliefs about belonging in inventing, interest in inventing, and their identification of women inventors. the students’ inventive interests. Following a single-session STEM outreach experience across five sites, which included family sessions held at a local museum, after-school STEM night family activities, and in-class visits (N = 215 students), participants completed a retrospective pre-post survey. Results indicated statistically significant positive shifts in students’ reported equity beliefs and interest in inventing following the session. However, findings were context-dependent: interest gains were more strongly associated with instructor connection and prior inventing experience, while equity belief shifts were observed broadly across participants and did not appear to depend on individual instructor connection. Instructor connection was not significantly associated with students’ identification of women inventors, suggesting that cognitive recognition of diverse inventors may require more sustained exposure than a single session provides. These findings suggest that single-session culturally responsive inventive learning experiences may be associated with positive motivational shifts in equity beliefs and interest, while deeper cognitive change in students’ inventor associations may require repeated and sustained engagement. Implications for the design of culturally responsive invention education programs are discussed.