Asee peer logo

Raising Interest in STEM Education: A Research-based Learning Framework for Improving Minority Participation

Download Paper |

Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Interest and Movitation: Formulating New Paradigms to Increase URM Participation in Engineering

Tagged Division

Minorities in Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

11

Page Numbers

26.1300.1 - 26.1300.11

DOI

10.18260/p.24637

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/24637

Download Count

505

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Daniel Christe Drexel University

visit author page

Daniel Christe is concurrently pursuing both a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, respectively. His core technical interests lie in microstructure-sensitive computational modeling of materials. Daniel currently serves as a research assistant in the Theoretical & Applied Mechanics Group housed within Drexel University’s Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics Department, and the Materials Science & Technology Division
(MST-8) at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

visit author page

biography

Arpit Shah Drexel University

visit author page

Arpit Shah is a Ph.D candidate in Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering , Science, and Health Systems.

visit author page

biography

Jay J. Bhatt Drexel University

visit author page

Jay Bhatt is responsible for building library collections in engineering subject areas, outreach to faculty and students, and teaching information and research skills to faculty and students in Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and related subject areas. He provides individual and small group consultations to students, instructional sessions to specific classes, online research support in both face to face and distance learning programs, and conducts workshops for specialized research areas. Jay is actively involved with the Engineering Libraries Division of the American Society for Engineering Education

visit author page

biography

Marisol Rodriguez Mergenthal Drexel University

visit author page

Ms. Rodriguez Mergenthal has been at Drexel University since 2006. In that time she has concentrated her efforts on supporting the academic, social and professional success of historically underrepresented populations in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. She currently serves as the Director for Drexel University’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program and as the Site Manager for the Bridge to the Doctorate Graduate Fellowship program. Both programs are made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Marisol Rodriguez Mergenthal graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and went on to earn her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Rochester.

visit author page

biography

Linda Powell Community College of Philadelphia

visit author page

Dr. Linda Powell MD is a Professor and Department Head of Biology at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Dr. Powell has been the Community College Coordinator for the Alliance for Minority Participation Grant [a National Science Foundation Grant initiative] for 20 years and the Principal Investigator for the RISE-STEM grant, a Department of Education Grant the Community College of Philadelphia received in October 2013. She works with eight tristate Colleges and Universities to increase the number of African-American, Latino and Native –American students receiving degrees in the areas of Engineering, Math and the Sciences.
In addition, Dr. Powell has been on the Board of Directors for Greater Philadelphia Health Action Inc., federally funded clinics serving the City of Philadelphia for 11 years and became Vice Chair of the Board eight years ago.

visit author page

biography

Antonios Kontsos Drexel University

visit author page

Antonios Kontsos joined the Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics Department at Drexel University in September 2009 and he is currently the Director of the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Group (TAMG). He received his undergraduate 5-year Diploma (2002) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics at University of Patras (Greece), and his MS (2005) and PhD (2007) degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Rice University (Houston, TX). He also held a 2-year Post-doc position at the Center for Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Materials in the Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics Department at the University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX). Dr. Kontsos is a member of the ASME, ASNT and Sigma Xi societies and he is serving as the Faculty Advisor of the local ASME student chapter at Drexel University.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Raising Interest in STEM Education: A partnership for minority improvement in STEM EducationDespite efforts of the past three decades, participation of underrepresented minority groups isstill an issue in STEM disciplines. Minority ethnic groups account for approximately 30% of theUnited States population, but only 9.1% of those working in STEM occupations[1, 2]. In thiscontext, a program between the [Institution removed] and [Institution removed] to provideresearch experience to underrepresented minority students (UMS) was implemented based on thehypothesis that learning about science and engineering is more effective if it is paired with thechallenge of independent research in a specifically collaborative “micro-environment”, as forexample in active research laboratories. Six undergraduate UMS (three male, three female) wereselected from a pool of twenty applicants in the inaugural year. Each student independentlyselected a faculty advisor and corresponding research group best aligned to their interests withinthe first two weeks of ten week program. From the outset, library integration underpinned theprogram. To this aim, students were personally introduced to key library professionals anddigital library search tools and databases were immediately employed to review at least threerelevant journal articles to their research foci, which assisted to form the basis for independentresearch proposals. By week four, students presented research plans before a panel of faculty andstudent judges. In order to complete the program, each student produced three final deliverables -an oral presentation, technical poster and paper describing their work. In addition, students wereexposed to STEM research in an application-driven industrial setting through a visit to a privatecorporation known for its innovation. A final survey and individualized assessments wereconducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and progress of the individual students,respectively. Students demonstrated familiarity with basic research methods and universallyreported increased interest in STEM education and careers, with four continuing to work in theirlabs beyond the program’s formal duration. Beyond the summer research program, thepartnership facilitated: (i) tutoring in community college STEM courses by [Institution removed]graduate students, (ii) a STEM career discussion panel, and (iii) a discussion among faculty andstaff from both institutions on addressing challenges UMS face in STEM education.Keywords—Research-based Learning, STEM education, Minority ParticipationReferences[1] President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology"Engage-to-Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics," E. O. o. t. President, Ed., ed. Washington, D.C.: Executive Office of the President 2012.[2] C. Vest, "The Image Problem for Engineering," The Bridge vol. 41, pp. 5-11, 2011.

Christe, D., & Shah, A., & Bhatt, J. J., & Mergenthal, M. R., & Powell, L., & Kontsos, A. (2015, June), Raising Interest in STEM Education: A Research-based Learning Framework for Improving Minority Participation Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24637

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2015 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015