Demystifying STEM Together: Parents as partners in making  engineering more inclusive (Work in Progress, Diversity)

Ashita Bawankule; Lara Hebert; Rafael Tinoco; Tracy Dace; Alexandria Cervantes

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division Poster Session
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41237
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41237
Download Count: 140

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Paper Authors

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Ashita Bawankule University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Masters student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Studying Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education
Research Assistant with Grainger College of Engineering's Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Department

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biography

Lara Hebert University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Assistant Director, Outreach and Public Engagement, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois

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Rafael Tinoco University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Rafael Tinoco is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He earned his Civil Engineering degree at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), and obtained his MS and PhD degrees in the Environmental Fluid Mechanics group at Cornell University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cantabria, and visiting instructor at Cornell University before joining the University of Illinois in 2015.

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Tracy Dace University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Alexandria Cervantes

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Abstract

Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth often close the door to STEM careers early in their lives because they do not view this future as viable. Lack of representation amplified by unconscious and conscious messages from educators and mentors, often results in the perceptions of “engineering is not for me”. Research shows that parental support in STEM experiences helps students develop higher self-efficacies in these topics, but parents are often left out of equity and inclusion efforts. Parental partnerships can encourage historically excluded youth to pursue STEM careers and feel supported in their journey. IMAGINE Family STEM Nights aims to bring together underrepresented youth and their families to engage in hands-on STEM projects. The activities foster a peer-peer relationship between the students and their parents as they work through misconceptions about STEM. This enables the families to build their knowledge and confidence in different engineering fields. A pilot of our project was virtually carried out in the academic year 2020-21, with 19 middle-school students and their families, through a partnership between the College of Engineering and community organizations centered on the interests and needs of our Black children and families. Individual STEM challenges were introduced and completed weekly. We collected feedback surveys from students and parents, pre-activity surveys, as well as interviews with students and parents after all the projects were completed. An initial qualitative analysis of the data collected provided us with a basis to build the upcoming 2021-22 sessions. We found that adult caregivers reported that the projects “made engineering more tangible, accessible and exciting.” Parents were surprised by their own ability to stick with something that seemed difficult at first, which consequently impacted the student’s confidence. Students were able to name applications of the different engineering fields and apply them in the global context, displaying a deeper understanding of the fields and their significance. This academic year, we plan to carry out six activities covering different engineering/STEM topics, in person. We are also increasing parent involvement in our planning with two community partners, to get a better insight into the challenges the families might face. We hope to address two main questions: 1. To what extent does engaging in STEM activities as a family increase interest in STEM and beliefs about future success in STEM? and 2. How does explicit instruction into hidden rules, systemic biases and stereotypes, and untapped resources influence beliefs about future success in STEM? We will be conducting pre-project surveys, feedback surveys after every activity and post-project surveys and interviews. This year, being in person will also allow us to observe the activities being done by the families which will also be a rich data source.

Citation
Format

Bawankule, A., & Hebert, L., & Tinoco, R., & Dace, T., & Cervantes, A. (2022, August), Demystifying STEM Together: Parents as partners in making engineering more inclusive (Work in Progress, Diversity) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41237

TY - CPAPER
AB - Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth often close the door to STEM careers early in their lives because they do not view this future as viable. Lack of representation amplified by unconscious and conscious messages from educators and mentors, often results in the perceptions of “engineering is not for me”. Research shows that parental support in STEM experiences helps students develop higher self-efficacies in these topics, but parents are often left out of equity and inclusion efforts. Parental partnerships can encourage historically excluded youth to pursue STEM careers and feel supported in their journey.
IMAGINE Family STEM Nights aims to bring together underrepresented youth and their families to engage in hands-on STEM projects. The activities foster a peer-peer relationship between the students and their parents as they work through misconceptions about STEM. This enables the families to build their knowledge and confidence in different engineering fields.
A pilot of our project was virtually carried out in the academic year 2020-21, with 19 middle-school students and their families, through a partnership between the College of Engineering and community organizations centered on the interests and needs of our Black children and families. Individual STEM challenges were introduced and completed weekly. We collected feedback surveys from students and parents, pre-activity surveys, as well as interviews with students and parents after all the projects were completed. An initial qualitative analysis of the data collected provided us with a basis to build the upcoming 2021-22 sessions. We found that adult caregivers reported that the projects “made engineering more tangible, accessible and exciting.” Parents were surprised by their own ability to stick with something that seemed difficult at first, which consequently impacted the student’s confidence. Students were able to name applications of the different engineering fields and apply them in the global context, displaying a deeper understanding of the fields and their significance.
This academic year, we plan to carry out six activities covering different engineering/STEM topics, in person. We are also increasing parent involvement in our planning with two community partners, to get a better insight into the challenges the families might face. We hope to address two main questions: 1. To what extent does engaging in STEM activities as a family increase interest in STEM and beliefs about future success in STEM? and 2. How does explicit instruction into hidden rules, systemic biases and stereotypes, and untapped resources influence beliefs about future success in STEM? We will be conducting pre-project surveys, feedback surveys after every activity and post-project surveys and interviews. This year, being in person will also allow us to observe the activities being done by the families which will also be a rich data source.
AU - Ashita Bawankule
AU - Lara Hebert
AU - Rafael Tinoco
AU - Tracy Dace
AU - Alexandria Cervantes
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Demystifying STEM Together: Parents as partners in making engineering more inclusive (Work in Progress, Diversity)
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41237
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41237
ER -