How the Infrastructure of a Rural Environmental Engineering K-12 Outreach Program Affects University Student Identity

• In Event: Equity, Identity, and Inclusivity in STEM and Engineering Education: Exploring Cultural Practices, Team Dynamics, and Systemic Barriers

Abstract

University students conducting K-12 engineering outreach have unique opportunities to develop both skills and identities. We conducted a focus group to explore how the infrastructure of a rural outreach course affects participating students’ identity development, through positioning and prolepsis. Across two semesters, university students learn to conduct outreach and then work in partner rural schools through in-person and virtual visits. The university students assist K-12 students in developing projects in their local rural community that uses air and soil quality sensors for investigating inquiry questions. Qualitative data analysis revealed key aspects of how the human, material, and structural infrastructure of the course supported university students’ outreach work and facilitated their identity development.

Authors

• Loraine Glidewell, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Marisa Mendoza-Maurer, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Joseph L. Polman, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Daniel W. Knight, University of Colorado - Boulder