Please join Engineering Education today as they host Dr. Gina Navoa Svarovsky's seminar: 3:30-4:20pm in Armstrong Room B071 Exploring the Role of Museums in Broadening Participation in Engineering Dr. Gina Svarovsky, Senior Evaluation and Research Associate at the Science Museum of Minnesota As the nation continues to struggle with developing a talented and diverse STEM workforce, the persistent underrepresentation of women and people of color in engineering becomes an increasingly urgent challenge. Two decades of research suggests that museums and other informal learning environments can play a powerful role in cultivating early interest and understanding in science; thus, there is great potential for leveraging these settings for engaging children in meaningful and motivational engineering experiences that can potentially lead to broadening participation in engineering careers. This presentation will begin with an overview of current informal engineering learning experiences based in museums, and then focus on a series of studies exploring the learning outcomes and processes involved in these types of learning environments. Bio: Dr. Gina Navoa Svarovsky is a Senior Evaluation and Research Associate at the Science Museum of Minnesota. For over a decade, she has been interested in how young people - and in particular, girls and youth of color - learn science and engineering in both formal and informal learning environments. Her current research explores how pre-college youth develop engineering skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking as a result of participating in a range of engineering experiences within out-of-school settings. Since joining the Science Museum of Minnesota, Dr. Svarovsky has also led several studies focused on engaging the public in current science and engineering topics, including research and evaluation studies focused on examining the public impacts of the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net). Dr. Svarovsky holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.