Extending the Impact of a STEM Curriculum with a Boundary-Spanning Summer Camp for Middle Schoolers

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Impact Through Collaboration: Reimagining School Partnerships with Higher Ed and Communities

Abstract

This reflective case narrative emerges from a larger project where a university-developed manufacturing engineering curriculum is traditionally delivered in a formal K-12 setting for middle school students. Students who participated in an elective manufacturing engineering course during the academic year were invited to participate in a one-week supplemental summer program on campus at the partnering institution. The purpose of this targeted study was to understand the structural opportunities that lie within extending an in-school program into an informal summer camp. Discussions with university curriculum/content developers (n=2), K-12 teachers (n=4), and summer camp participants (n=14) illuminated structural opportunities that can support K-12 teachers and schools interested in extending traditional in-school STEM education into informal learning settings.

Authors

• Micaha Dean Hughes, North Carolina State University

• Aaron Arenas, North Carolina State University

• Tameshia Ballard Baldwin, North Carolina State University

• LaTricia Townsend, North Carolina State University