Increasing Students' Interest in STEM Through Real-Time Energy Monitoring Hardware and Curriculum

• In Event: Programs That Engage and Motivate Students to Pursue STEM Careers Through National Science Foundation–Funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers Programs

Abstract

Studies show students who are engaged in STEM classes tend to have more positive attitudes towards STEM disciplines, and take more advanced science and math courses in high school and four-year colleges (DeJarnette, 2012; Tseng, Chang, Lou, & Chen, 2013). Students enrolled in STEM classes also become invested in real-world problems, and become the creators of knowledge, rather than just consumers of it (Prettyman et al., 2012). Many empirical studies have concluded that students who are engaged in the integrative approaches to STEM education lead to greater achievement in STEM disciplines when compared to their counterparts who did not receive integrated STEM approaches (Becker & Park, 2011; Scott 2012).

This presentation will discuss the creation and findings from the first year pilot of a three year grant, funded by the NSF (award #1433597) which seeks to create a STEM focused, energy efficiency curriculum for middle and high school classes. The goals of the project include increasing STEM learning experiences with real-time school electrical consumption data, improving teacher competence in STEM and inquiry teaching techniques, and ultimately having students assist facility managers to reduce energy costs. What makes this project unique is the use of real-time electrical data collection made available by hardware placed in school sites, which allows students to monitor loads within a classroom to see how power consumption changes by turning on and off different loads, such as lights, computers, refrigerators, etc. in real time. Students can then make recommendations to school personnel in order to reduce the energy bill by 10% at a school site.

The STEM Semantics Survey (Tyler-Wood, Kneze, & Christensen, 2010) was administered to students to determine if interests in STEM subjects and careers improved as a result of the teaching practices and content presented within the curriculum. Students also took a content test to determine if student knowledge about energy efficiency improved as a result of the curriculum.
A paired samples t-test was applied to each set of data. The results of the STEM Semantics Survey reveal student interest in STEM subjects and Careers improved as a result of their participation in the curriculum (p = 0.001) with a small effect size (d = 0.19). Further analyses were done for each topic and show attitudes toward all topics except math increased (science p = 0.045; engineering p = 0.006; technology p = 0.022; careers p = 0.011). Effect sizes for all areas remained small (0.17 < d > 0.19).
The same groups of students also took a multiple choice content test as a pretest and posttest. Due to absences during the pretest or posttest, data were only collected on 179 students. The results show students content knowledge significantly increased with a medium effect size (Pretest: M = 17.8659; SD = 5.99943; Posttest: M = 21.8045; SD = 6.57034; t = -9.249; p < 0.001; d = -0.626) suggesting the methods used to teach the content were sufficient for students to learn the content.

Authors

• David T. Crowther, University of Nevada - Reno

• Catherine Pozarski-Connolly, Washoe County School District