Asee peer logo

Investigating Unique Aspects of the MESA Program for Underrepresented Students

Download Paper |

Conference

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

San Antonio, Texas

Publication Date

June 10, 2012

Start Date

June 10, 2012

End Date

June 13, 2012

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Attracting Young Minds: Part II

Tagged Division

Minorities in Engineering

Page Count

10

Page Numbers

25.856.1 - 25.856.10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--21613

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/21613

Download Count

378

Request a correction

Paper Authors

author page

Cameron Denson Utah State University

author page

Chandra Y. Austin Auburn University

biography

Christine E. Hailey Utah State University

visit author page

Christine E. Hailey is Senior Associate Dean and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University. She is the Principal Investigator and Director of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education, an NSF-Funded Center for Learning and Teaching. The NCETE is a collaborative network of scholars from nine institutions with backgrounds in technology education, engineering, and related fields. Its mission is to improve the understanding of the learning and teaching of high school students and teachers as they apply engineering design processes to technological problems. She is also the Principal Investigator of “The Influence of MESA Activities on Underrepresented Students,” a program funded by the DRK-12 program at NSF. This exploratory study examines the influences that those MESA activities have on students' perception of engineering and their self-efficacy and interest in engineering and their subsequent decisions to pursue careers in engineering.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Investigating Unique Aspects of the MESA Program for Underrepresented StudentsTopic: New research and trends related to underrepresented minorities in engineeringFor over forty years, the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA)program has supported educationally disadvantaged students and minority students inmiddle schools and high school. MESA utilizes as co-curricular academic enrichmentmodel that includes “academic planning, community service, family involvement,academic enrichment, hands-on engineering activities, career advising, field trips,competitions and workshops.”1In 2010, the National Science Foundation funded an exploratory research study toexamine the effect of MESA activities on student engineering self-efficacy, interest inengineering and perceptions of engineering. The Engineering Self-Efficacy, Interests andPerceptions (ESIPS) survey instrument was developed by modifying and building uponinstruments used in prior studies. The ESIPS instrument was piloted with166 studentsfrom MESA programs in Utah and California. The results of survey and theaccompanying factor analysis provided evidence for the researchers and their advisorycommittee that more developmental work was needed to unpack the activity variablesassociated with MESA programs. In an effort to create activity components, researchersconducted focus group interviews with MESA students from five different programsthroughout the state of California. Using a grounded theory approach, five groupsconsisting of seven to ten MESA students were interviewed for approximately one hour.The following questions guided the study: (1) Can you describe one of the best times you have had in MESA? (2) What do you think you are gaining by participating in MESA?The focus group interviews were audio recorded and later transcribed for the purpose ofanalysis. Employing a grounded theory approach, the researchers looked for emergentthemes in the participants’ responses. Themes that achieved saturation were identifiedand correlated between two analysts in order to establish inter-rater reliability. The resultsof the analysis produced seven distinct themes that describe MESA’s impact on students:(a) informal mentoring, (b) makes learning fun (c) development of time managementskills (d) opportunities to express creativity, (e) application of math and science, (f)feelings of accomplishment, and (g) builds confidence.The proposed paper will provide detail about the focus group results and how theseresults were included in an improved ESIPS survey instrument.1. MESA USA. (2011). Retrieved from http://mesa.ucop.edu/about/mesausa.html

Denson, C., & Austin, C. Y., & Hailey, C. E. (2012, June), Investigating Unique Aspects of the MESA Program for Underrepresented Students Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21613

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015