Addressing Barriers to STEM Education through Experiential Learning in High School Physics

High school physics in Ontario faces large gender and racial disparities in enrollment. This leads to barriers for many youth as physics is a prerequisite for many post-secondary STEM pathways. This paper will focus on the work of k2i academy’s Bringing STEM to Life: Work-Integrated Learning(W-IL) program to explore the impact of the operational and programmatic design that allows youth who have opted out of traditional high school physics the opportunity to engage with the course through experiential learning that allows for hands-on learning of curriculum expectations and a paid-work experience. During the program, participants gained confidence in coding and engineering while engaging in STEM spaces where they felt an increased sense of belonging and representation. Participants also had great access to STEM role models. The W-IL provides best practices for how experiential learning can be embedded into formal education to improve the ways underrepresented youth engage in STEM education.