WIP - Outreach and Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning (EML) in STEM

Ghina Absi

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Self-Efficacy & Mindset
Tagged Division: Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 8
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/57354

Paper Authors

biography

Ghina Absi Vanderbilt University

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Ghina Absi is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Vanderbilt University. She teaches classes at the freshmen, sophomore and junior classes in Civil Engineering (Intro to Engineering, Statics, Mechanics of Materials, Civil Engineering Lab and several electives including travel classes) . She earned her BE and ME from the Saint Joseph University (ESIB) in Beirut, Lebanon, and worked for 5 years as a steel structures design engineer at a multinational firm (Dar Al-Handasah Shair and Co) based in Beirut. Absi then joined Vanderbilt University to pursue her PhD in Civil Engineering at Vanderbilt University (graduated 2019), focusing her research on risk and reliability of hypersonic structures. Absi is a licensed professional engineer in the state of TN.

Absi is passionate about education and promoting diversity in engineering. She serves as the advisor for the ASCE student chapter, the EDI liaison for the civil engineering department. A 2023 KEEN Engineering Unleashed fellow, Absi incorporates EDI as well as entrepreneurial mindset learning fostering curiosity, connections and creating value in design into her core classes with project-based learning techniques. She continually spearheads K-12 initiatives, especially for girls and underserved youth, to get them excited about engineering.

Outside work, Absi loves spending time with family. She enjoys traveling, hiking, mountain biking, and the outdoors. Absi is trilingual in English, French and Arabic.

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Abstract

This is a WIP paper on STEM outreach in civil engineering. Civil Engineering as a career is in high demand to cater for our ailing infrastructure and design for a sustainable and innovative future. Students who are exposed to STEM before college have a greater chance of selecting engineering as a major, and that visits to engineering schools had an impact of the students’ decision to enter engineering.

We designed an immersive STEM outreach project based on a civil engineering core statics course application centering on one of the largest infrastructures investments in national history: the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Initially designed to connect major cities in the US, enhance national security and help grow the economy, the highways built within the city limits were purposefully routed though under-represented minoritized communities. This led to the destruction of many thriving neighborhoods, notably the Jefferson Street community in Nashville, TN. Currently, a national effort to alleviate the effects of the Highway Act is driving the design of many interstate caps to reconnect the severed communities.

In this paper, we explore the effect of this immersive project on a group of 23 juniors in high school. This cohort of students from different local public schools is part of a program run by the SSMV (School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt) to encourage students with interest in science and math to pursue STEM careers. Once a week for 4-weeks, students researched the Highway Act, studied the history of Jefferson Street, and used a novel ideation technique to design innovative and inclusive prototype bridges. This technique generated much curiosity in the students with respect to civil engineering, encouraging them to create connections with the community, and designing a product that showcases the community’s values. All these follow the KEEN’s definition of entrepreneurial mindset learning. They used tool kits provided by the author to shape the Balsa. Students learned how to calculate reactions for varying loads on the bridge, using basic mathematics and physics knowledge of forces and equilibrium. They also used an open-source truss simulator to draw their bridges and see the how loads transmit through a structure. At the end of their 4th session, students presented their ideation process along with their designs to their peers, and a group of educators from the community. Surveys were conducted at the end of each of the four sessions to track students’ growth during this project. Many students noted how this hands-on application helped them tie engineering with math they learned at school. Some shared that this spiked their interest in civil engineering. In the spring of 2025, a cohort of 80 8th graders will be doing this immersive project. Qualitative data will be collected, similarly to the pilot project. We will compare how STEM oriented high schoolers compare to the general 8th grade population with regards to immersive STEM projects. We will be comparing both groups’ math curriculum to study how that affects their outlook of STEM, and whether it encourages or discourages students from pursuing STEM careers.

Citation
Format

Absi, G. (2025, June), WIP - Outreach and Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning (EML) in STEM Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/57354

TY - CPAPER
AB - This is a WIP paper on STEM outreach in civil engineering. Civil Engineering as a career is in high demand to cater for our ailing infrastructure and design for a sustainable and innovative future. Students who are exposed to STEM before college have a greater chance of selecting engineering as a major, and that visits to engineering schools had an impact of the students’ decision to enter engineering.

We designed an immersive STEM outreach project based on a civil engineering core statics course application centering on one of the largest infrastructures investments in national history: the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Initially designed to connect major cities in the US, enhance national security and help grow the economy, the highways built within the city limits were purposefully routed though under-represented minoritized communities. This led to the destruction of many thriving neighborhoods, notably the Jefferson Street community in Nashville, TN. Currently, a national effort to alleviate the effects of the Highway Act is driving the design of many interstate caps to reconnect the severed communities.

In this paper, we explore the effect of this immersive project on a group of 23 juniors in high school. This cohort of students from different local public schools is part of a program run by the SSMV (School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt) to encourage students with interest in science and math to pursue STEM careers. Once a week for 4-weeks, students researched the Highway Act, studied the history of Jefferson Street, and used a novel ideation technique to design innovative and inclusive prototype bridges. This technique generated much curiosity in the students with respect to civil engineering, encouraging them to create connections with the community, and designing a product that showcases the community’s values. All these follow the KEEN’s definition of entrepreneurial mindset learning. They used tool kits provided by the author to shape the Balsa. Students learned how to calculate reactions for varying loads on the bridge, using basic mathematics and physics knowledge of forces and equilibrium. They also used an open-source truss simulator to draw their bridges and see the how loads transmit through a structure. At the end of their 4th session, students presented their ideation process along with their designs to their peers, and a group of educators from the community.
Surveys were conducted at the end of each of the four sessions to track students’ growth during this project. Many students noted how this hands-on application helped them tie engineering with math they learned at school. Some shared that this spiked their interest in civil engineering.
In the spring of 2025, a cohort of 80 8th graders will be doing this immersive project. Qualitative data will be collected, similarly to the pilot project. We will compare how STEM oriented high schoolers compare to the general 8th grade population with regards to immersive STEM projects. We will be comparing both groups’ math curriculum to study how that affects their outlook of STEM, and whether it encourages or discourages students from pursuing STEM careers.
AU - Ghina Absi
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - WIP - Outreach and Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning (EML) in STEM
UR - https://peer.asee.org/57354
ER -