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Enhancing Middle/High School Female Students' Self-confidence and Motivation in Pursuing STEM Careers through Increasing Diversity in Engineering And Labor-force (IDEAL) Outreach Summer Program

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Technical Session: Outreach and Retention

Tagged Division

Mechanical Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--33953

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/33953

Download Count

648

Paper Authors

biography

Nina Robson California State University, Fullerton

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Dr. Nina Robson is an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at California State University at Fullerton.

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Allison Serrano

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Axel Alvarez Loya California State University, Fullerton

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I'm in my third year at California State University, Fullerton as a Mechanical engineering student.

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biography

Nikol Miojevic

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Nikol Miojevic is a 9th grader at Ithaca High School, in Upstate New York. She is passionate about science, math, engineering and Latin. She currently takes a course on design and drawing for production, where she learns the basics of engineering and uses CAD. Also, she is a member of the BioBuilder club that focuses on genetics. Before starting high school, Nikol was a student at the Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca, where she developed a passion for sciences. It was the summer after 8th grade when she participated in the engineering workshop presented here, where she discovered an interest in engineering. Nikol’s hobbies are art and karate.

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Kimberly Krystal Lopez-Zepeda

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Madeline E. Rasche

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Abstract

The main objective of the IDEAL program was to explore enhancing middle and high-school female students self-confidence and motivation in pursuing future STEM careers by providing them with team cross-disciplinary research experiences that enhance critical thinking and collaboration skills. Entry and exit summer IDEAL program surveys used to assess the IDEAL program impact showed that the students enhanced their knowledge/skills the most in understanding STEM research papers, as well as in working collaboratively on a STEM research project. National Science Foundation Middle/High School Student Attitudes Towards STEM (SSTEM) Survey was used to assess the overall impact of the outreach program on the female students’ self-confidence and motivation in pursuing future cross-disciplinary STEM careers. The results showed that the 21st Century skills related to critical-thinking, communication, and collaboration was the section with the most radical improvement.

Robson, N., & Serrano, A., & Alvarez Loya, A., & Miojevic, N., & Lopez-Zepeda, K. K., & Rasche, M. E. (2020, June), Enhancing Middle/High School Female Students' Self-confidence and Motivation in Pursuing STEM Careers through Increasing Diversity in Engineering And Labor-force (IDEAL) Outreach Summer Program Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--33953

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