http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4039-3331
![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
STEM hobbies are free-choice activities through which participating individuals may develop sophisticated STEM knowledge and expertise. To date, research into STEM hobbies and hobbyists has examined hobby groups by subject area. Missing from this body of work is research that examines the development and participation in different types of hobbies by age, ethnicity, and gender of participants. This research, part of a larger series of investigations of American adult STEM hobbyists, aims to fill that gap. Surveys were completed by 2,838 respondents from ten different STEM hobbies (astronomy, beekeeping, birding, electronics/robotics, environmental monitoring, falconry, gardening/horticulture, home brewing, model building, rock/fossil collecting). Results showed that there is great variation between STEM hobby groups across multiple variables and divergent descriptive profiles emerged for each group. Results also showed that, in several groups, more than half of the adult hobbyists reported first participating in their hobby during their youth. This study illustrates how crucial childhood experiences are to encouraging lifelong explorations in STEM and provides information about the types of experiences hobbyists reported as being influential to their hobby-related learning and development. This information may be used by educators and organizations to design programs to support current and future hobbyists.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Elysa N. Corin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4039-3331
Notes
1 Samples of hobby groups that have been reported as overwhelmingly Caucasian include amateur astronomers (87%) (Berendsen, Citation2005), home brewers (93%) (Murray, Citation2009), and birders (93%, 94%, 95%) (Carver, Citation2013; Eubanks et al., Citation2004; La Rouche, Citation2006). In a survey designed to investigate the prevalence of African Americans in birdwatching, Robinson (Citation2005, Citation2008) found that 34% of survey respondents had never met an African American birder. The sampled birders had been involved in their hobby for an average of 21 years and, over that time span, on average, met only two African American birders. Robinson, himself an African American birder, reported he could only recall meeting three other African American birders over a 22-year period.
2 Eighty-nine percent of environmental monitors indicated their hobby development had been influenced by experiences in museums/science centers as well as experiences in college.