A Large-scale Survey of K-12 Students about STEM: Implications for Engineering Curriculum Development  and Outreach Efforts  (Research to Practice)

Eric N. Wiebe; Malinda Faber; Jeni Corn; Tracey Louise Collins; Alana Unfried; LaTricia Townsend

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Conference: 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Publication Date: June 23, 2013
Start Date: June 23, 2013
End Date: June 26, 2013
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Research Initiatives
Tagged Division: K-12 & Pre-College Engineering
Page Count: 9
Page Numbers: 23.59.1 - 23.59.9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--19073
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/19073
Download Count: 829

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Paper Authors

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Eric N. Wiebe North Carolina State University

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Dr. Wiebe is a professor in the Department of STEM Education at NC State University and Senior Research Fellow at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. A focus of his research and outreach work has been the integration of multimedia and multimodal teaching and learning approaches in STEM instruction. He has also worked on research and evaluation of technology integration in instructional settings in both secondary and post-secondary education. Dr. Wiebe has been a member of ASEE since 1989.

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Malinda Faber The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation

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Malinda Faber is a Research Associate on the Evaluation Team at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University. She works on multiple research teams, including evaluations of the Golden LEAF Foundations’ STEM Initiative, North Carolina’s Race to the Top STEM Initiative, and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s IMPACT-V model for capacity-building in instructional technology.

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Jeni Corn Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, NC State University

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As the Director of Evaluation Programs at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State University, Dr. Corn serves as PI of several large, statewide evaluation and research studies of innovations in K-12 schools and districts, including leading the evaluation of initiatives funded under North Carolina's Race to the Top grant. Her research interests focus on leadership, professional development, teaching and learning, infrastructure, and evaluation for technology-enhanced innovations in public school settings.

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Tracey Louise Collins North Carolina State University

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Tracey Louise Collins is the Project Coordinator for the MISO Project. Responsibilities include implementing activities of the project, coordinating efforts among K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach programs, and working closely with university enrollment management and data management professionals at the Friday Institute at North Carolina State University (NCSU). She works closely with both large and small NCSU outreach groups offering K-12 outreach to teachers and students. She also assists with planning, implementing, managing, and reporting of project activities which include survey development, coordination of data collection, interfacing with data managers, coordination of meetings and workshops for outreach providers to gather feedback, identify best practices, and disseminate findings to stakeholders. In addition, she assists with annual report writing and conference presentations. She has been a member of the American Society of Engineering Educators since 2011.

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Alana Unfried North Carolina State University

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Alana Unfried is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University. She works on the Data Analytics team for the MISO Project (Maximizing the Impact of STEM Outreach through Data-Driven Decision Making). Alana’s responsibilities include the development of statistically sound evaluation instruments for teachers and students involved in these campus outreach programs. She also analyzes survey results and related data to understand the collective impact of these pre-college STEM outreach programs. Alana is also a full-time Ph.D. student in the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University.

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LaTricia Townsend

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Abstract

A Large-scale Survey of K-12 Students about STEM: Implications for Engineering Curriculum Development and Outreach Efforts (Research to Practice)As part of a Southeast U.S. state-wide initiative to improve STEM education, a survey wasconducted of 12,800 students in grades 4 through 12 concerning their efficacy and attitudestowards STEM education and career paths. Students in this pool were enrolled in schoolsimplementing a broad range of STEM-related instructional initiatives. The results from the10,448 students responding to this survey (82% response rate) provides valuable information forthose planning or conducting K-12 engineering outreach efforts or developing curricularmaterials for use in the classroom. Results of the survey confirm ongoing concerns by theengineering education community about the divide between male and female students and theirorientation towards engineering degree and career paths. Girls had significantly lower responsesregarding attitudes towards engineering and technology related learning topics. While girls andboys were similar in their general interest in STEM-related careers, girls had less interest inpursuing engineering-related ones. These differences were not seen when looking across under-represented groups when analyzed by race or ethnicity. Also of interest to groups providingSTEM-enrichment activities for students: four of the five top career tracks chosen by studentshave no established K-12 curriculum, including engineering. Finally, overall interest in STEM-related career paths steadily declined from the upper elementary years, through middle school,and into high school. This presentation will focus on interpreting the findings of this large-scalesurvey with regards to how engineering education curriculum developers and outreach providersmight use this data to inform the design of their interventions and how the survey instrumentsadministered in this study can be used to inform the efficacy of their efforts.

Citation
Format

Wiebe, E. N., & Faber, M., & Corn, J., & Collins, T. L., & Unfried, A., & Townsend, L. (2013, June), A Large-scale Survey of K-12 Students about STEM: Implications for Engineering Curriculum Development and Outreach Efforts (Research to Practice) Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19073

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                A Large-scale Survey of K-12 Students about STEM:              Implications for Engineering Curriculum Development                               and Outreach Efforts                               (Research to Practice)As part of a Southeast U.S. state-wide initiative to improve STEM education, a survey wasconducted of 12,800 students in grades 4 through 12 concerning their efficacy and attitudestowards STEM education and career paths. Students in this pool were enrolled in schoolsimplementing a broad range of STEM-related instructional initiatives. The results from the10,448 students responding to this survey (82% response rate) provides valuable information forthose planning or conducting K-12 engineering outreach efforts or developing curricularmaterials for use in the classroom. Results of the survey confirm ongoing concerns by theengineering education community about the divide between male and female students and theirorientation towards engineering degree and career paths. Girls had significantly lower responsesregarding attitudes towards engineering and technology related learning topics. While girls andboys were similar in their general interest in STEM-related careers, girls had less interest inpursuing engineering-related ones. These differences were not seen when looking across under-represented groups when analyzed by race or ethnicity. Also of interest to groups providingSTEM-enrichment activities for students: four of the five top career tracks chosen by studentshave no established K-12 curriculum, including engineering. Finally, overall interest in STEM-related career paths steadily declined from the upper elementary years, through middle school,and into high school. This presentation will focus on interpreting the findings of this large-scalesurvey with regards to how engineering education curriculum developers and outreach providersmight use this data to inform the design of their interventions and how the survey instrumentsadministered in this study can be used to inform the efficacy of their efforts.
AU  - Eric N. Wiebe
AU  - Malinda Faber
AU  - Jeni Corn
AU  - Tracey Louise Collins
AU  - Alana Unfried
AU  - LaTricia Townsend
CY  - Atlanta, Georgia
DA  - 2013/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Large-scale Survey of K-12 Students about STEM: Implications for Engineering Curriculum Development  and Outreach Efforts  (Research to Practice) 
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/19073
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--19073
ER  -