Build-It Boxes: Bringing Informal STEM Activities to Children Living in Rural Poverty

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Rural School Reform Efforts: What Works?

Abstract

Children living in rural poverty are less interested and engaged in STEM than any other demographic group. The BUILD-IT BOX Program addresses this problem with an innovative mail-based intervention. This program will send a hands-on informal STEM activity in the mail to the homes of middle school students living in rural poverty every month for one year. During Phase One, the activities were designed and created. During Phase Two (currently ongoing), a randomized, controlled experiment is determining if The BUILD-IT BOX Program effectively improves STEM attitudes, engagement, knowledge, and visuospatial working memory for middle school students living in rural poverty.

Author

• Michele Tine, Dartmouth College