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Reinventing High School with a Focus on Industry-driven Design Projects and It’s Influence on Students as they Enter College “Work in Progress”

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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

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40985

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40985

Download Count

331

Paper Authors

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Vanessa Santana Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI)

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Greg Strimel Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI)

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Assistant Professor, Technology Leadership & Innovation at Purdue University

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Abstract

Higher education and employers alike continue to call for a need to transform how secondary learning occurs in schools across the United States to better meet the needs of our ever-changing world. To begin to address these calls, new initiatives, practices, and innovative educational approaches increasingly focus on the development of 21st century skills within schools in hopes of preparing students for the future of work and learning. One example of such innovative educational approach challenging the traditional structure, sometimes referred to as “factory model,” of high schools is a unique university-school collaborative model. This model consists of a network of STEM-focused charter schools in urban locations across the state that have been developed in partnership with the state’s flagship research-intensive university. The uniqueness of this model is that it has been created with a goal of cultivating an environment of academic excellence and college readiness, specifically for minoritized youth, through experiential learning where students learn by attempting to solve authentic problems through industry-sponsored design challenges and projects. As this approach to schooling can be considered novel, this preliminary study sought to investigate the perceptions of current seniors within one of these schools, as well as the perceptions of those from the first graduating class, before and after their first semester at the collaborating university, of the school’s influence on their college and career readiness. Therefore, in an attempt to study the influence of the model, this “work in progress paper” describes an effort to investigate the perceptions of current high school seniors and the first graduating class (alumni) related to their development of 21st century skills, sense of belonging, as well as the challenges/successes faced when entering higher education at the collaborating university. The researchers discuss the resulting data from one high school’s seniors survey, and a pre/post survey before and after the alumni’s first semester of college at the collaborating university. The analysis of these data may provide insight to the influence of the innovative school model, which can aid other schools, educators, and other educational stakeholders in making informed decisions as they attempt to transform or reinvent secondary learning to better prepare students for their futures.

Santana, V., & Strimel, G. (2022, August), Reinventing High School with a Focus on Industry-driven Design Projects and It’s Influence on Students as they Enter College “Work in Progress” Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40985

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