Board 22: Enhancing Minority Middle School Student Knowledge, Literacy, and Motivation in STEM Using Culturally Relevant Contexts

Neil A. Knobloch; Levon T. Esters; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux; Abeera P. Rehmat; Quintana M. Clark; Ulyssa Hester; Trinity A. Johnson; Dottie Vollmer; Elizabeth Morgan Alexander

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 5
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--29985
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/29985
Download Count: 409

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Paper Authors

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Neil A. Knobloch Purdue University

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Neil Knobloch is a recognized leader for his scholarship of teaching and learning processes in agricultural sciences to engage and retain students in the STEM career pipeline. His research improves the development of future educators and scientists to engage with K-12 audiences, demonstrates learner-centered teaching strategies to increase student motivation and engagement, and advances intentional and inclusive mentoring of women and minorities in the agricultural STEM disciplines.

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Levon T. Esters Purdue University

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Dr. Esters serves as the Director of the Mentoring@Purdue (M@P) program which is designed to increase the number of women and URMs receiving advanced post-secondary STEM-based agricultural and life sciences degrees in Purdue University’s College of Agriculture. Dr. Esters also serves as a Senior Research Associate at The Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Esters’ research focuses broadly on issues of educational equity and access of underrepresented minorities with a concentration on three areas: 1) mentoring of women and underrepresented minority graduate students, 2) STEM career development of racial and ethnic minorities attending HBCUs, and 3) educational and professional mobility of women and underrepresented minority graduate students and faculty.

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Heidi A. Diefes-Dux Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering) orcid.org/0000-0003-3635-1825

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Heidi A. Diefes-Dux is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Food Science from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Food Process Engineering from the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. She is a member of Purdue’s Teaching Academy. Since 1999, she has been a faculty member within the First-Year Engineering Program, teaching and guiding the design of one of the required first-year engineering courses that engages students in open-ended problem solving and design. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and assessment of modeling and design activities with authentic engineering contexts. She also focuses on the implementation of standards-based grading and teaching assistant training.

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Abeera P. Rehmat Purdue University orcid.org/0000-0002-4977-5830

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A Post-doctoral Research Associate at Purdue University.

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Quintana M. Clark Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Quintana "Quincy" Clark is a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication at Purdue University. Her research focuses on emerging technologies for teaching and learning integrated STEM concepts, model-eliciting activities (MEAs), and the intersection of cognitive load and motivation. Quincy’s research also focuses on the impact that STEM intervention/mentoring programs have on enhancing underrepresented students’ preparedness for, and persistence in, graduate school.

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Dottie is a Master's student in the Department of Youth Development and Agricultural Education in the College of Agriculture at Purdue University.

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Elizabeth Morgan Alexander Purdue University

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Abstract

Abstract

Social and economic development in the world is driven by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The real-world concepts and experiences acquired through these disciplines are central to developing 21st century skills. Even societal issues, such as health, energy, environment, and food require fluency in these core concepts and practices of science and engineering. Considering the complexity of the emerging issues, there is growing demand for a workforce that is competitive yet diverse. However, workforce diversity within STEM disciplines is not being met especially in terms of the number of underrepresented minorities. Reflecting on the growing rate of underrepresented minorities (URM) in the United States, fostering academic success among URM students in STEM has never been more important. One way to enhance rates of success among URM students in STEM is by connecting curricula and instruction through culturally relevant pedagogies (CRP) in mathematics and science. Furthermore, activities that are learner-centered, such as Model-Eliciting

Activities (MEAs) can allow students to be creative in applying knowledge for real-world solutions, require students to mathematize information in context and provide students and teachers a window into students’ thinking during solution development. The purpose of this National Science Foundation (NSF) project is to design, implement, and evaluate integrated culturally relevant (CR) MEAs using agricultural life sciences as the context for learning experiences. To ensure cultural and career relevance, the design of the CR MEAs will be driven by a societal challenge that is connected to a local community issue and career.

A design-based research approach will be employed to support the design of a novel educational intervention (i.e., CR MEAs) through iterative cycles of testing and research-informed revisions. A concurrent mixed methods design will be used to collect multiple forms of data (e.g., surveys, interviews/focus groups, classroom observations to ensure reliability and validity of findings.

A long-term goal of this project aims to increase the number of URM middle school students who are prepared for advanced level secondary STEM courses and postsecondary majors in the STEM fields.

Citation
Format

Knobloch, N. A., & Esters, L. T., & Diefes-Dux, H. A., & Rehmat, A. P., & Clark, Q. M., & Hester, U., & Johnson, T. A., & Vollmer, D., & Alexander, E. M. (2018, June), Board 22: Enhancing Minority Middle School Student Knowledge, Literacy, and Motivation in STEM Using Culturally Relevant Contexts Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--29985

TY - CPAPER
AB - Abstract

Social and economic development in the world is driven by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The real-world concepts and experiences acquired through these disciplines are central to developing 21st century skills. Even societal issues, such as health, energy, environment, and food require fluency in these core concepts and practices of science and engineering. Considering the complexity of the emerging issues, there is growing demand for a workforce that is competitive yet diverse. However, workforce diversity within STEM disciplines is not being met especially in terms of the number of underrepresented minorities. Reflecting on the growing rate of underrepresented minorities (URM) in the United States, fostering academic success among URM students in STEM has never been more important. One way to enhance rates of success among URM students in STEM is by connecting curricula and instruction through culturally relevant pedagogies (CRP) in mathematics and science. Furthermore, activities that are learner-centered, such as Model-Eliciting

Activities (MEAs) can allow students to be creative in applying knowledge for real-world solutions, require students to mathematize information in context and provide students and teachers a window into students’ thinking during solution development. The purpose of this National Science Foundation (NSF) project is to design, implement, and evaluate integrated culturally relevant (CR) MEAs using agricultural life sciences as the context for learning experiences. To ensure cultural and career relevance, the design of the CR MEAs will be driven by a societal challenge that is connected to a local community issue and career.

A design-based research approach will be employed to support the design of a novel educational intervention (i.e., CR MEAs) through iterative cycles of testing and research-informed revisions. A concurrent mixed methods design will be used to collect multiple forms of data (e.g., surveys, interviews/focus groups, classroom observations to ensure reliability and validity of findings.

A long-term goal of this project aims to increase the number of URM middle school students who are prepared for advanced level secondary STEM courses and postsecondary majors in the STEM fields.

AU - Neil A. Knobloch
AU - Levon T. Esters
AU - Heidi A. Diefes-Dux
AU - Abeera P. Rehmat
AU - Quintana M. Clark
AU - Ulyssa Hester
AU - Trinity A. Johnson
AU - Dottie Vollmer
AU - Elizabeth Morgan Alexander
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 22: Enhancing Minority Middle School Student Knowledge, Literacy, and Motivation in STEM Using Culturally Relevant Contexts
UR - https://peer.asee.org/29985
DO - 10.18260/1-2--29985
ER -