(447c) Correlating College Student Participation in K-12 STEM Outreach with Sense of Belonging and Professional Development

University students, administration, and faculty implicitly understand the direct connection between high grades in formal coursework and graduation. The role of participation within informal community activities, however, such as K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) outreach on student psyche and adjacent metrics for success remains unclear. In this study, surveys were distributed to STEM students via email and flyer canvassing at The University of Washington – Seattle, with 524 respondents from the Colleges of Engineering, Arts & Sciences, and the Environment over a 2-week period. Six prompts in Likert-type item style were scored from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) by respondents on self-perceived sense of belonging, qualification of employment in STEM fields, STEM fluency with children or non-STEM adults, and willingness to help and be helped with classwork. Rigorous statistical analyses with parametric and non-parametric techniques revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) between groups of students based on recent K-12 STEM outreach participation for all six survey prompts. For instance, students in the College of Engineering that volunteer in outreach express increased confidence in explaining STEM concepts to children compared to engineering students who have never volunteered in outreach. Interestingly, this difference in STEM fluency was absent amongst students in the College of the Environment and Arts & Sciences. Short answer responses revealed that students who never engage in K-12 STEM outreach are willing and excited to volunteer despite being unaware of available opportunities. These correlations elucidate benefits of K-12 outreach participation that foster positive student attitudes and provide motivation for academic institutions to advertise informal, community-based programming.