Entomologists in the K-12 Classroom: A Scoping Review

Simple Summary Entomologists, like many other types of scientists, will often share their scientific findings with the public. This is especially true for entomologists, who engage specific audiences, such as extension programs that target farmers, for example. But those focusing on K-12 classrooms are less well studied. Here, we conducted a scoping review to search for all relevant publications, and from those determine (1) the characteristics of K-12 entomology outreach efforts and (2) opportunities for improvement based on identified characteristics. The search of five databases yielded 42 relevant publications. Analysis of those publications identified the following characteristics of K-12 outreach efforts: These publications are most often published in educational journals, they are most often reflective, and they rarely evaluate the interventions employed. We suggest that the practice of K-12 entomology outreach benefits from (i) publishing in entomology-focused journals, (ii) including non-academic authors, (iii) evaluating interventions, (iv) including student data, and (v) considering elements of diversity and inclusion.Abstract Engaging the public is a common practice in science disciplines and is deeply rooted in the discipline of entomology. These efforts to engage specific target groups within the general public are well studied, especially extension efforts to engage farmers and agricultural stakeholders, but this is not the case for K-12 educational spaces. Here, we conducted a scoping review to (1) determine the characteristics of entomology outreach efforts engaging K-12 populations and (2) identify opportunities for improvement based on the synthesis of those characteristics. We systematically searched five databases to identify 42 publications relevant to the parameters of this project. Analysis of characteristics indicated that entomology outreach efforts in K-12 classrooms tend to be reflective, are more often published in educationally focused journals, and rarely evaluate the interventions employed. Opportunities for improvement were identified from these trends, and from them we suggest that the practice of K-12 outreach benefits from (i) publishing in entomology-focused journals, (ii) including non-academic authors, (iii) evaluating interventions, (iv) including student data, and (v) considering axes of diversity and inclusion.