Preparing globally competent and competitive STEM workforce of the 21st century in the Global STEM Classroom®

Vitaliy Popov; Larisa K. Schelkin; Russell Faux

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Conference: 2016 ASEE International Forum
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Publication Date: June 25, 2016
Start Date: June 25, 2016
End Date: June 25, 2016
Conference Session: Concurrent Paper Tracks Session II Outreach
Tagged Topic: International Forum
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--27254
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/27254
Download Count: 1143

Paper Authors

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Vitaliy Popov 1. University of San Diego. 2. The Global STEM Education Center orcid.org/0000-0003-2348-5285

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Vitaliy Popov is a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar at the Mobile Technology Learning Center, University of San Diego, USA. In addition, Dr. Popov is a consultant at the Global STEM Education Center. For his PhD dissertation, he designed and implemented studies in which over 500 students from more than 55 countries worked together with the help of online collaborative technologies. As a postdoc he is currently conducting a cross-sector research study involving the cross-pollination of ideas between K-20 education and private enterprise in STEM-related disciplines as they implement mobile learning in teaching and learning. Vitaliy has published articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals such as, Computers in Human Behavior; The Internet and Higher Education; Technology, Pedagogy and Education; International Journal of Intercultural Relations.

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Larisa K. Schelkin Global STEM Education Center, Inc.

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Larisa K. Schelkin CEO, President and Founder, Global STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education Center, Inc. 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation; She is also a Founder of the Global Technology and Engineering Consortium (GTEC) and a co-founder of the DOME Foundation. Larisa Schelkin is the author of the Global STEM Classroom® teaching and learning model . She held executive positions in academia and STEM global corporations (WPI, WIT, Tufts University; TYCO Electronics Global Corporation). Larisa is a Fellow for Education Policy, Rennie Center for Educational Research and Policy & Institute for Education Leadership (IEL), Washington, DC (Class 2015); Larisa studied Global Education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education “Think Tank” (Class 2016); she is a Fellow and Board member of Massachusetts Academy of Science. Larisa serves on The STEM-Space Project at SETI Advisory Board; on IUCEE Advisory Board and on Massachusetts Metro North Regional Employment Board; She was recently appointed a Co-Chair for the Global STEM Education Sub-Committee and also serves on Diversity in STEM Education Sub-Committee, MA Governor’s STEM Education Advisory Council. Larisa received a Catalyst Award from the Science Club for Girls and Distinguish Service Award New England Regional ASEE. She holds BS and MS in Petroleum Engineering & MS in Computer Science. Prior to moving to Massachusetts, USA, where she and her family residing now, they have lived in Russia, India, and Africa.

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Russell Faux DSRA

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Russell Faux, Ed.D. studied philosophy at the Universities of Chicago and Wisconsin before turning to education and completing his doctorate at Boston University. He taught language and literature for six years at the University of Padua in Italy. After a year as a Spencer Scholar at Stanford University, Dr. Faux returned to Italy as a research consultant for Bolt, Beranek, and Newman. Dr. Faux held senior research positions at TERC and Riverdeep Interactive (perhaps best known for the Carmen Sandiego software) before starting Davis Square Research Associates in 2001. His work encompasses qualitative and quantitative methods, including grounded theory, instrument development and validation, quantitative modeling, and social network analysis. DSRA clients have included the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Purdue University, the University of Maine, Tufts University, the Boston Museum of Science, Boston University, the University of Massachusetts, the U.S. Department of Education, Houghton Mifflin, Verizon, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Abstract

Technological advancements over the last decade have dramatically changed the reality of the STEM professional world, the way STEM professionals work, and the skills that are now required. One of the major changes is that STEM professionals are working in teams, generally multicultural teams in the United States or global teams collaborating through technology. Today’s students—tomorrow’s workers— without ability to learn and work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, and skills to function productively in an interdependent world community will not be able to improve the United States’ economic competitiveness, and provide leadership in innovation and creativity. The Global-STEM Classroom® reflects these rapid changes, addresses the new skill requirements, and provides innovative technology experiences for students and teachers by modeling authentic, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary collaborative, STEM professional teamwork processes.

The Global STEM Education Center, Inc 501 (c) (3) nonprofit founded in 2008 with a mission to “increase participation in STEM disciplines by all students and, especially girls and students from underrepresented groups, to meet the needs of an innovation-driven globally competitive workforce”. It involves a collaborative learning environment specific to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) projects. The Global STEM Classroom® implies creating virtual environment of one joint classroom where students from two or more schools in different countries receive instructions from one teacher as if they are in the same classroom (using both synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning approaches). The participating schools are located in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, Norway and the Netherlands (Australia, Ireland, India will be joining next academic year). The Global STEM Classroom® program specifically addresses secondary education with students ages 12-17 years old (more than 50% girls and students from underrepresented groups) giving students a learning advantage in preparation for higher education, raising an awareness of and “sparks” the interest in engineering professional and studying STEM disciplines and expands cultural and technical competency for the global workforce. The Global STEM Classroom® participants complete real-life STEM/engineering (both research and hands-on) projects with an online virtual global student team. The present study was undertaken to answer the following research question: What are the effects – cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral, and social – that can be reasonably attributed to participation in the Global STEM Classroom®. The research model was a within-group, change-over-time model and data collection relied largely upon pre-post survey findings to determine whether the Global STEM Classroom® was effective at meeting its declared objectives. The methods included an extensive online survey comprising the constructs embedded in the research question. Findings from the survey showed that:

Students chose to participate because they were motivated by the content, the possibility of collaborating internationally, or because they thought it would be good for their academic and future careers. Students most enjoyed the interactive aspects of the project. Students tended to use relatively simple and ubiquitous communication tools (e.g., Skype). Teachers were motivated by the professional development opportunities and by the idea that the project would be good for their students. Teachers also enjoyed the interactive aspects of participation, including the guest speakers (professional engineers and other STEM professionals)

The above findings, however preliminary, show that the Global STEM Classroom® holds a great deal of promise for a larger-scale rollout. The Global STEM Classroom® is able to tap into students motivations and provide them with meaningful and innovative educational experiences that appear to have exercised significant effects on learning, attitudes, and behavior. There are important aspects of future research that will need to be addressed, however, including: a more complete sample with a full description of the participants, an assessment tool for measuring both fidelity of implementation and extent of exposure, and more work on assessments of learning that are tied to the actual content of the (STEM/engineering) project.

Citation
Format

Popov, V., & Schelkin, L. K., & Faux, R. (2016, June), Preparing globally competent and competitive STEM workforce of the 21st century in the Global STEM Classroom® Paper presented at 2016 ASEE International Forum, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/1-2--27254

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Technological advancements over the last decade have dramatically changed the reality of the STEM professional world, the way STEM professionals work, and the skills that are now required. One of the major changes is that STEM professionals are working in teams, generally multicultural teams in the United States or global teams collaborating through technology. Today’s students—tomorrow’s workers— without ability to learn and work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, and skills to function productively in an interdependent world community will not be able to improve the United States’ economic competitiveness, and provide leadership in innovation and creativity. The Global-STEM Classroom® reflects these rapid changes, addresses the new skill requirements, and provides innovative technology experiences for students and teachers by modeling authentic, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary collaborative, STEM professional teamwork processes. 

The Global STEM Education Center, Inc 501 (c) (3) nonprofit founded in 2008 with a mission to “increase participation in STEM disciplines by all students and, especially girls and students from underrepresented groups, to meet the needs of an innovation-driven globally competitive workforce”. It involves a collaborative learning environment specific to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) projects. The Global STEM Classroom® implies creating virtual environment of one joint classroom where students from two or more schools in different countries receive instructions from one teacher as if they are in the same classroom (using both synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning approaches). The participating schools are  located in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, Norway and the Netherlands (Australia, Ireland, India will be joining next academic year). The Global STEM Classroom®   program specifically addresses secondary education with students ages 12-17 years old (more than 50% girls and students from underrepresented groups) giving students a learning advantage in preparation for higher education, raising an awareness of and “sparks” the interest in engineering professional and studying STEM disciplines and expands cultural and technical competency for the global workforce.  The Global STEM Classroom® participants complete real-life STEM/engineering (both research and hands-on) projects with an online virtual global student team.  The present study was undertaken to answer the following research question: What are the effects – cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral, and social – that can be reasonably attributed to participation in the Global STEM Classroom®. The research model was a within-group, change-over-time model and data collection relied largely upon pre-post survey findings to determine whether the Global STEM Classroom® was effective at meeting its declared objectives. The methods included an extensive online survey comprising the constructs embedded in the research question.  Findings from the survey showed that:

Students chose to participate because they were motivated by the content, the possibility of collaborating internationally, or because they thought it would be good for their academic and future careers.
Students most enjoyed the interactive aspects of the project.
Students tended to use relatively simple and ubiquitous communication tools (e.g., Skype).
Teachers were motivated by the professional development opportunities and by the idea that the project would be good for their students.
Teachers also enjoyed the interactive aspects of participation, including the guest speakers (professional engineers and other STEM professionals)

The above findings, however preliminary, show that the Global STEM Classroom® holds a great deal of promise for a larger-scale rollout.  The Global STEM Classroom® is able to tap into students motivations and provide them with meaningful and innovative educational experiences that appear to have exercised significant effects on learning, attitudes, and behavior.  There are important aspects of future research that will need to be addressed, however, including: a more complete sample with a full description of the participants, an assessment tool for measuring both fidelity of implementation and extent of exposure, and more work on assessments of learning that are tied to the actual content of the (STEM/engineering) project.
AU  - Vitaliy Popov
AU  - Larisa K. Schelkin
AU  - Russell Faux
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Preparing globally competent and competitive STEM workforce of the 21st century in the Global STEM Classroom®
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/27254
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--27254
ER  -