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Session 1692

Internet Explorers: An NSF Sponsored Internship Lawrence J. Genalo, Krishna S. Athreya, Ann K. Dieterich Iowa State University

1. Introduction Summer research internships were extended to twenty high school girls who had completed their junior year with the primary goal of increasing middle school girls' participation in science, engineering, and mathematics (SEM). The interns spent eight weeks during the summer of 1997 on the Iowa State University campus where they researched science and engineering topics, learned programming methods and developed SEM units for the Internet.

The summer research interns were directed by a team of four female undergraduate students who have demonstrated ability in computers, were trained in courseware development, and were majoring in SEM-related fields. A female graduate student in secondary education, and also a practicing middle school science teacher, worked as a consultant to the team to provide expertise in curricular content, educational delivery, and impact on the targeted middle school students. Another female graduate student in secondary education, specializing in assessment, worked to assess the program and to provide valuable “self discovery” information for the interns through Learning Styles Inventories and the Myers-Briggs Test. A secondary goal was the enhancement of the undergraduate and graduate women's own professional development.

2. Project Results Twenty-nine internet explorations covering human biology, natural sciences, and technology were created and can be viewed at http://ecss.eng.iastate.edu/explorer/. The four undergraduate students provided the training and day-to-day assistance for the interns in the use of computer technology to design and develop the explorations package. The interns learned quickly and made significant use of the internet and their programming abilities to produce the explorations. A special dimension was added to the undergraduate school experience of the undergraduate mentors. End-of-project reports from the undergraduates showed their experience in serving as mentors to be very positive.

A middle school teacher/graduate student helped aim the explorations at the target audience of middle school girls. She also arranged for visits by members of the target audience to

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Athreya, K. S., & Dieterich, A. K., & Genalo, L. (1998, June), Internet Explorers: An Nsf Sponsored Internship Paper presented at 1998 Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/1-2--7234