Board 76: Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Elementary School African Americans, Hispanics, and Girls by Scaling Up Summer Engineering Experiences
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topics
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Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
- Page Count
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5
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--30103
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/30103
- Download Count
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438
Paper Authors
David B. Knight
Virginia Tech
orcid.org/0000-0003-4576-2490
David Knight is Assistant Professor and Assistant Department Head for Graduate Programs in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He is also Director of International Engagement in Engineering Education and affiliate faculty with the Higher Education Program at Virginia Tech. His research tends to be at the macro-scale, focused on a systems-level perspective of how engineering education can become more effective, efficient, and inclusive.
Walter C. Lee
Virginia Tech
orcid.org/0000-0001-5082-1411
Dr. Walter Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education and the assistant director for research in the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED), both at Virginia Tech. His research interests include co-curricular support, student success and retention, and diversity. Lee received his Ph.D in engineering education from Virginia Tech, his M.S. in industrial & systems engineering from Virginia Tech, and his B.S. in industrial engineering from Clemson University.
Karl W. Reid National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
Karl Reid is the newly appointed Executive Director of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), a 18,000 plus student-governed association in Alexandria, Virginia whose mission is to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community. He is the author of “Working Smarter, Not Just Harder: Three Sensible Strategies for Succeeding in College...and Life.”
Dr. Reid came to NSBE from the United Negro College Fund where he served as senior vice president of research, innovation and member college engagement. Prior to joining UNCF, Dr. Reid was Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Director of the Office of Minority Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Reid earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT, and his Doctorate of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research interests include exploring the
relationships between racial identity and self-efficacy, and their influence on the academic achievement of African American males in higher education.
Monica E. Cardella
Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)
orcid.org/0000-0002-4229-6183
Monica E. Cardella is the Director of the INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering Education and is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University.
Morgan M Hynes Purdue University-Main Campus, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)
Dr. Morgan Hynes is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University and Director of the FACE Lab research group at Purdue. In his research, Hynes explores the use of engineering to integrate academic subjects in K-12 classrooms. Specific research interests include design metacognition among learners of all ages; the knowledge base for teaching K-12 STEM through engineering; the relationships among the attitudes, beliefs, motivation, cognitive skills, and engineering skills of K-16 engineering learners; and teaching engineering.
Cherie D. Edwards Virginia Tech
Dr. Cherie D. Edwards is a Postdoctoral Associate in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation from Virginia Tech. Her research and scholarship are focused on exploring the implementation of mixed methods, qualitative, and arts-informed research designs in studies examining issues of social justice and educational equity. Currently, she is on a research team examining the impacts of an out-of-school STEM summer program for racially underrepresented youth.
Glenda D. Young Collins Mississippi State University
Dr. Glenda D. Young is a visiting assistant professor in the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Mississippi State University. She completed her doctoral work at Virginia Tech in the Department of Engineering Education. Her research examines the role of university-industry partnerships in shaping student career expectations and pathways, the student to workforce continuum, and broadening participation in engineering. Dr. Young has worked as an Employer Relations Assistant for the VT Career and Professional Development office and has a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University and Master of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University. She is a Gates Millennium Scholar.
Abstract
Project funded by Division of Research on Learning (ITEST)
Diversifying the pipeline into engineering is a national imperative. It is central for enhancing the likelihood of innovation, including a variety of perspectives when solving problems, and promoting social justice and broad access to the STEM workforce. One way to diversify the pipeline is to expand the potential for underrepresented students by capturing their interests in STEM at a young age through extra-curricular programming focused on children of color, such as the Summer Engineering Experiences for Kids (SEEK) program. Organized by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), SEEK is a three-week summer program that engages participants in grades 3-5 in daily hands-on, team-based engineering design projects led by collegiate mentor and teachers. Since the pilot in 2007, over 20,000 students have participated in SEEK. Based on early success of this program, NSF funded our multi-partner project to scale up the experience and conduct research on how such outreach programs might grow in sustainable manners. Two objectives guide the research aspect of this project:
1. Evaluate SEEK’s success at influencing STEM-related academic and career identity, conceptual knowledge, and interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. 2. Generate evidence and a greater understanding of organizational contextual factors that operate to enhance, moderate, or constrain SEEK’s impact from site to site.
This project applies the logic of an input-environment-outcome framework to organize data collection and analysis. In addition to considering relationships between students’ background characteristics and experiences within SEEK with their post-camp outcomes, the framework emphasizes the influence of organizational contexts on shaping students’ learning experiences. We considered three major components of organizational context in comparing sites: 1) Local structures, policies, and practices – e.g., the influence of the host school, supporting local industry partnerships, access to resources; 2) SEEK programs, structures and policies – e.g., NSBE-provided curricula, site development procedures, participant selection policies, and 3) Mentor/Teachers’ Culture – e.g., beliefs about engineering education, training programs.
Our poster will present a summary of the large-scale data collection that occurred during summer 2017 at all 16 sites. We administered a variety of instruments that have been vetted by the peer-reviewed literature to identify changes in students' STEM-related outcomes over the course of the SEEK experience. We also collected background information with regard to socio-demographic characteristics, academic preparation, and personal and social experiences, which serve as control variables and provide contextual information to illustrate differences between sites. To further operationalize the variation in organizational contexts across sites, we collected data from parents and mentors and followed an in-depth, qualitative, multi-case study approach to investigate variation in available resources and implementation strategies across seven SEEK sites. Results point to contextual factors that appear to relate to effectiveness of the program and point to recommendations for similar programs seeking to expand in the future.
Knight, D. B., & Lee, W. C., & Reid, K. W., & Cardella, M. E., & Hynes, M. M., & Edwards, C. D., & Young Collins, G. D. (2018, June), Board 76: Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Elementary School African Americans, Hispanics, and Girls by Scaling Up Summer Engineering Experiences Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30103
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