Outreach Program Evaluation through the Lens of Engineering Identity Development (Evaluation)

Jorge Rodriguez-Devora; Tyler Harvey; William Ferriell; Kristin Frady; Maegan Hinson; Bradley Putman

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division Poster Session
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40941
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/40941
Download Count: 251

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Tyler Harvey holds a PhD in Bioengineering and a graduate certificate in Engineering and Science Education, both from Clemson University, and is currently a Lecturer in the department of Bioengineering at Clemson. His teaching focus is on undergraduate capstone design, bioethics, entrepreneurship, and sports engineering. His current research interests include integrating empathy education into the engineering curriculum and increasing access to the discipline through targeted K-12 STEM outreach experiences.

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Maegan Hinson Clemson University

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Kristin Frady Clemson University

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Kristin Frady is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University jointly appointed between the Educational and Organizational Leadership Development and Engineering and Science Education Departments. Her research focuses on innovations in workforce development at educational and career transitions. The context of her research emphasizes three primary areas specifically focusing on two-year college and secondary STEM and career education, educational innovations, and the middle skill workforce. Kris is or has served as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator, or Senior Personnel numerous federal grants including a current National Science Foundation CAREER grant. Kris has also led development of digital learning tools to designed expand technician education capacity through virtual reality tools, advanced e-learning modules, and iBooks.

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Bradley Putman Clemson University

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William Ferriell Clemson University

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W. Davis Ferriell is a doctoral student in Biomechanical Engineering at Clemson University. Davis graduated from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. His discipline-specific research focuses on computational design methods. His engineering education-based research focuses on methods for increasing participation in engineering and the assessment of instructional approaches.

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Abstract

Students from underrepresented groups are less likely to participate and persist in STEM disciplines. Furthermore, negative attitudes of STEM disciplines in these underrepresented populations may be developed as early as elementary school. These negative attitudes, coupled with common misconceptions about STEM, introduce yet another barrier for underrepresented students to participate and succeed in STEM disciplines. It has been shown that a student’s greater sense of engineering identity can improve their persistence in the field. Furthermore, STEM or engineering identity has been shown to be influenced by outreach program interventions. This study seeks to assess an outreach intervention through the lens of engineering identity development in middle school aged South Carolina public school students. The intervention is a mobile STEM outreach program for middle school (6th-8th grade) students that is designed to complement classroom instruction with engineering applications and concepts. The outreach activities, which were administered on site at each middle school by a faculty member from a southeastern research university, were designed to address engineering misconceptions and support identity development both generally and in a variety of specific engineering disciplines. To develop a baseline of students’ engineering identity, a pre-survey was administered prior to participation in the outreach program. Following the program activities, a post-survey was administered to assess changes in perceptions, understanding, and identification with engineering. The surveys were designed using the Role Identity Surveys in Engineering (RIS-E). To supplement, de-identified materials from some student groups were collected to analyze student responses in more detail. Lastly, a case study group that received three interventions was analyzed to assess the effects of the outreach program from multiple interventions.

Student responses on the RIS-E survey were collected and analyzed from middle school-aged students in South Carolina both before and after participating in an either virtual or in-person version of the EXPLORE Mobile Lab activity. Pre-activity responses indicate similar degrees of engineering identity in middle school students across the schools, school districts, and grade levels surveyed; however, while there was consistently a greater degree of engineering identity from the interest and competency vectors, recognition from others and self-recognition were consistently lacking across these groups. In before and after surveys of all program participants, the EXPLORE Mobile Lab activity demonstrated significant increases in perceived competency, self-recognition, and recognition from others. While no significant increases were observed in individual classrooms following a single intervention, further analysis of the case study group (n=39) indicated statistically significant increases from the pre-survey in self-recognition and recognition from others following the third intervention. Data from the preliminary pilot study indicate the success of the EXPLORE Mobile Lab at increasing students’ sense of engineering identity—primarily by improving self-recognition and recognition from others—following three interventions. Furthermore, the intervention was successful at boosting self-perceived competency to do engineering in some groups. Lastly, the survey tool employed has demonstrated an ability to analyze an individual student’s degree of and change in engineering identity which may provide educators with a more precise tool to support individual students’ specific identity vectors.

Citation
Format

Rodriguez-Devora, J., & Harvey, T., & Hinson, M., & Frady, K., & Putman, B., & Ferriell, W. (2022, August), Outreach Program Evaluation through the Lens of Engineering Identity Development (Evaluation) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40941

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Students from underrepresented groups are less likely to participate and persist in STEM disciplines. Furthermore, negative attitudes of STEM disciplines in these underrepresented populations may be developed as early as elementary school. These negative attitudes, coupled with common misconceptions about STEM, introduce yet another barrier for underrepresented students to participate and succeed in STEM disciplines. It has been shown that a student’s greater sense of engineering identity can improve their persistence in the field. Furthermore, STEM or engineering identity has been shown to be influenced by outreach program interventions. This study seeks to assess an outreach intervention through the lens of engineering identity development in middle school aged South Carolina public school students. The intervention is a mobile STEM outreach program for middle school (6th-8th grade) students that is designed to complement classroom instruction with engineering applications and concepts. The outreach activities, which were administered on site at each middle school by a faculty member from a southeastern research university, were designed to address engineering misconceptions and support identity development both generally and in a variety of specific engineering disciplines. To develop a baseline of students’ engineering identity, a pre-survey was administered prior to participation in the outreach program. Following the program activities, a post-survey was administered to assess changes in perceptions, understanding, and identification with engineering. The surveys were designed using the Role Identity Surveys in Engineering (RIS-E). To supplement, de-identified materials from some student groups were collected to analyze student responses in more detail. Lastly, a case study group that received three interventions was analyzed to assess the effects of the outreach program from multiple interventions. 

Student responses on the RIS-E survey were collected and analyzed from middle school-aged students in South Carolina both before and after participating in an either virtual or in-person version of the EXPLORE Mobile Lab activity. Pre-activity responses indicate similar degrees of engineering identity in middle school students across the schools, school districts, and grade levels surveyed; however, while there was consistently a greater degree of engineering identity from the interest and competency vectors, recognition from others and self-recognition were consistently lacking across these groups. In before and after surveys of all program participants, the EXPLORE Mobile Lab activity demonstrated significant increases in perceived competency, self-recognition, and recognition from others. While no significant increases were observed in individual classrooms following a single intervention, further analysis of the case study group (n=39) indicated statistically significant increases from the pre-survey in self-recognition and recognition from others following the third intervention. Data from the preliminary pilot study indicate the success of the EXPLORE Mobile Lab at increasing students’ sense of engineering identity—primarily by improving self-recognition and recognition from others—following three interventions. Furthermore, the intervention was successful at boosting self-perceived competency to do engineering in some groups. Lastly, the survey tool employed has demonstrated an ability to analyze an individual student’s degree of and change in engineering identity which may provide educators with a more precise tool to support individual students’ specific identity vectors. 

AU  - Jorge Rodriguez-Devora
AU  - Tyler Harvey
AU  - Maegan Hinson
AU  - Kristin Frady
AU  - Bradley Putman
AU  - William Ferriell
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Outreach Program Evaluation through the Lens of Engineering Identity Development (Evaluation)
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/40941
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40941
ER  -