Exploring STEM Careers Initiative

• In Event: 49.031 - Fostering and Maintaining Students' STEM Interest Throughout the Educational Pipeline

Abstract

Exploring STEM Careers Initiative (ESCI) is an inter-segmental collaborative partnership led by the San Diego Science Alliance, a non-profit organization, which has served the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education community for over three decades. ESCI is in its second year and thus far served 9 school districts, 25 schools, and 58 teachers. Two of the project’s main objectives is to 1) Increase student (6th-12th) motivation to learn STEM content and related skills by participating in challenge-based programs with the support of a STEM mentor and their teacher and 2) Prepare teachers (6th-12th) to use challenge-based learning to engage their students in out-of-school time STEM activities.

The project’s theory of action is that student participation in real-world engineering problem solving coupled with the opportunity to exhibit their work in a real-world setting is an effective model for developing understanding of STEM content knowledge, enhancing technology skills, and increasing students’ appreciation for STEM careers. The study has employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore two research questions:

1) How does student participation in challenge-based programs affect self-perceived success in STEM topics?
2) What is the impact of teacher participation in their classroom practices?

Various data sources have been used to document student and teacher outcomes over the last two years, including pre and post questionnaires (students and teachers), student and teacher journal entries, semi-structured interviews (students and teachers), Challenge-based Competition Observations, and evaluation of professional development activities. The initial results indicate that students are gaining STEM related content knowledge in the areas of computer science (programming in C+), physics (buoyancy and electrical circuits), and material science (characteristics). In addition, they are gaining valuable engineering skills, such as design principles, trial and error, working in a team setting with a common goal. Moreover, students also report interest in post-secondary and engineering careers.

The adoption of the Next Generation Standards has made a key difference for outcomes with teachers. In the first year of the project, some teacher reported that integration of engineering based challenges into their classroom was not feasible. As opposed to year two, where the majority of teachers are reporting that they will continue to offer their students opportunities to participate in engineering based challenge activities. As with the students, teachers are gaining STEM content knowledge, in particular computer science.

The scholarly contribution of this research is that challenge-based engineering is a viable instructional model in both in and out-of-school setting that provides secondary school students with valuable opportunities to gain knowledge and skills in engineering.

Authors

• Nancy Taylor, San Diego State University

• Gloria Rodriguez Bañuelos, Miramar College