Board 172: Redefining the Role of Women in Engineering through SWE-Led Middle School Outreach Program (Work in Progress)

Sarah K. Bauer; Cheng Zhu; Courtney A. Lemasney; Amanda Yannarella

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Poster Session
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42536
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42536
Download Count: 103

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Paper Authors

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Sarah K. Bauer Mercer University

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Dr. Sarah Bauer (Ph.D., University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA) is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Civil Engineering at Mercer University, Macon, GA. Her primary research interests are water and wastewater treatment, waste management, pollution prevention, and renewable energy technologies. Her research work focuses on developing sustainable techniques for the production of clean energy and clean water, with specific interest in the FEW Nexus. Her research work has been funded by the Armand Corporation, the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA), the Engineering Information Foundation (EiF), and the National Science Foundation. She has also worked on projects to develop sustainability-related hands-on engineering activities for K-12 students through the Society of Women Engineers: Engineers in Training (SWEET) summer program she developed in 2021. She currently serves as the co-Faculty Advisor for Mercer University’s student chapter of SWE.

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Cheng Zhu Rowan University orcid.org/0000-0001-5382-1003

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Dr. Cheng Zhu is an assistant professor of civil engineering at Rowan University. His research primarily concerns multi-scale geomaterial behavior under coupled processes across various time scales, with emphasis placed on microstructure characterization,

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Courtney A. Lemasney Rowan University

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Courtney LeMasney is a second-year undergraduate at Rowan University pursuing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. During her time there, she has been awarded the Kupersmith and John D Cook III scholarship awards, and has expressed increased interest in fire p

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Amanda Yannarella Rowan University

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Abstract

Research shows that women constitute half the workforce in the U.S.; however, women only occupy about a quarter of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs. In the last twenty years, many educators and researchers have worked to develop strategies and programs to increase the participation of women in STEM careers. Research shows that strategic intervention at the middle school-level can have great impacts on female students’ perspectives of careers in STEM fields. At Rowan University, the Society of Women Engineers: Engineers in Training (SWEET) Program, a program led by engineering faculty and the students of the university’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), was established to help redefine the role of women in STEM fields. Through a series of workshops, the SWEET Program exposed middle school-aged girls to the exciting and meaningful career possibilities in engineering from the perspectives of faculty, current students, and women in the industry.

Through the SWEET Program, workshop participants learned about what engineers do, what impact engineers can have on society, and what types of engineering work they could do in their future careers. Participants took part in two hands-on engineering projects during each workshop day, ranging from hydraulic bridges to polymer bouncy balls to magnetic-levitation trains. Workshop participants completed pre- and post-workshop surveys in order for the workshop leaders to gauge the background knowledge of the participants in engineering fields, as well as to determine what the participants learned during the workshop, what they enjoyed most about the workshop, and to gauge their interest in pursuing an education in engineering. During its pilot programming from summer 2021 to 2022, the SWEET Program hosted nine workshop days across four workshop periods with 123 total workshop participants in grades 6, 7, and 8. Based on the preliminary survey data collected, 94% of participants said they wished they learned more about topics such as engineering in their middle-school curriculum, and 95% of participants said the workshop content sparked their interest into the field of engineering. About 74% of participants said that after participating in the SWEET Program, they feel motivated to look further into pursuing engineering as a choice of study.

Citation
Format

Bauer, S. K., & Zhu, C., & Lemasney, C. A., & Yannarella, A. (2023, June), Board 172: Redefining the Role of Women in Engineering through SWE-Led Middle School Outreach Program (Work in Progress) Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42536

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Research shows that women constitute half the workforce in the U.S.; however, women only occupy about a quarter of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs. In the last twenty years, many educators and researchers have worked to develop strategies and programs to increase the participation of women in STEM careers. Research shows that strategic intervention at the middle school-level can have great impacts on female students’ perspectives of careers in STEM fields. At Rowan University, the Society of Women Engineers: Engineers in Training (SWEET) Program, a program led by engineering faculty and the students of the university’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), was established to help redefine the role of women in STEM fields. Through a series of workshops, the SWEET Program exposed middle school-aged girls to the exciting and meaningful career possibilities in engineering from the perspectives of faculty, current students, and women in the industry.

Through the SWEET Program, workshop participants learned about what engineers do, what impact engineers can have on society, and what types of engineering work they could do in their future careers. Participants took part in two hands-on engineering projects during each workshop day, ranging from hydraulic bridges to polymer bouncy balls to magnetic-levitation trains. Workshop participants completed pre- and post-workshop surveys in order for the workshop leaders to gauge the background knowledge of the participants in engineering fields, as well as to determine what the participants learned during the workshop, what they enjoyed most about the workshop, and to gauge their interest in pursuing an education in engineering. During its pilot programming from summer 2021 to 2022, the SWEET Program hosted nine workshop days across four workshop periods with 123 total workshop participants in grades 6, 7, and 8. Based on the preliminary survey data collected, 94% of participants said they wished they learned more about topics such as engineering in their middle-school curriculum, and 95% of participants said the workshop content sparked their interest into the field of engineering. About 74% of participants said that after participating in the SWEET Program, they feel motivated to look further into pursuing engineering as a choice of study.
AU  - Sarah K. Bauer
AU  - Cheng Zhu
AU  - Courtney A. Lemasney
AU  - Amanda Yannarella
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 172: Redefining the Role of Women in Engineering through SWE-Led Middle School Outreach Program (Work in Progress)
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/42536
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--42536
ER  -