Board 4: Student Outcomes in Academic Community-Engaged STEM Projects with Multi-Dimensional Diversity

Danielle Wood; Alisa Zornig Gura; Jay B. Brockman; Sam Alptekin

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30025
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30025
Download Count: 339

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Paper Authors

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Danielle Wood University of Notre Dame

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Assistant Director for Community-Based Research and Impact.

Dr. Wood received her M.S.and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds her B.S. from Purdue University. Her research interests include community engagement, asset-based community development, collective impact, and evaluation in complex settings.

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biography

Alisa Zornig Gura University of Notre Dame

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Alisa Zornig Gura has served in various STEM community engagement roles with the University of Notre Dame since 2006 focusing on grant team management, program management, and project management as well as Broader Impacts for National Science Foundation proposals. She was the Executive Director of the Northern Indiana Regional Science and Engineering Fair from 2012 to 2016 and served on the Science Education Foundation of Indiana Board of Directors during that time. In addition, her committee work includes several initiatives to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice and a Master of Public Affairs degree with a concentration in Nonprofit Administration from Indiana University South Bend.

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Jay B. Brockman University of Notre Dame

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Dr. Jay Brockman is the Associate Dean of Engineering for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and previously worked for Intel Corporation. He is also a founder of Emu Solutions, Inc., a startup company that is commercializing research in the area of high-performance computing.

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Sam Alptekin

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Abstract

The Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem (BCE2) is a partnership of area schools, diverse academic institutions, government, and community organizations in the Midwest to attract and retain underrepresented groups in engineering and science, improve the quality of low-income neighborhoods, and build STEM literacy throughout the regional workforce. It is, in part, driven by the understanding that educational institutions at a variety of levels need improved approaches to attract and retain a diversity of students in the STEM fields. Demand for STEM skills is not at just the Bachelor’s or graduate degree level. Consequently, diversity in BCE2 extends beyond race, gender, and socio-economic status, including a diversity of student ages, education, and cultural backgrounds – multi-dimensional diversity. Led by the College of Engineering at a research university and drawing from critical principles from engaged learning and innovation ecosystem environments and best practices for STEM learning, BCE2 is developing a system across different types of institutions that is woven into the cultural fabric of the region. As such, this effort seeks to impact attraction and retention across the STEM pipeline, but also attraction and retention to the geographic region in which they are making contributions. The BCE2 effort applies elements of the persistence framework (Graham, Frederick, Byars-Winston, Hunter, & Handelsman, 2013) with early research and active learning in the community. Early experience in applications of STEM can also help build confidence and identity related to STEM. Identity with a discipline is one of the strongest indicators of persistence in that discipline (Andersen & Ward, 2014) and active learning can support diversity in sense-making and identity (Danielak, Gupta, & Elby, 2014). Preliminary findings from reflections, interviews, ethnographic observations, and surveys on progress in attraction and retention, particularly along the dimension of identity, indicate progress in several of the outcome categories. Exposure to both the community projects and the weekly seminars regarding STEM fields has contributed to student formation as future STEM professionals. Following the summer internship experience, students, including those coming from the high schools the community college, have indicated that their conceptualization of STEM field possibilities is wider and a career path is clearer. A few of students indicated interest in taking new STEM-related courses and one is considering switching within STEM-related disciplines. In addition, survey responses regarding feeling connection to the region provide information pertinent to developing a geographically specific STEM workforce. Researchers conducted a paired-samples t-test to determine differences pre- and post-intervention. There was a statistically significant increase in interns reporting feeling a connection to the region with a large effect size. At this stage of the grant, these findings are promising for potential to impact diversity in STEM – from both a geographic and human resources perspective.

Citation
Format

Wood, D., & Gura, A. Z., & Brockman, J. B., & Alptekin, S. (2018, June), Board 4: Student Outcomes in Academic Community-Engaged STEM Projects with Multi-Dimensional Diversity Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30025

TY - CPAPER
AB - The Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem (BCE2) is a partnership of area schools, diverse academic institutions, government, and community organizations in the Midwest to attract and retain underrepresented groups in engineering and science, improve the quality of low-income neighborhoods, and build STEM literacy throughout the regional workforce. It is, in part, driven by the understanding that educational institutions at a variety of levels need improved approaches to attract and retain a diversity of students in the STEM fields. Demand for STEM skills is not at just the Bachelor’s or graduate degree level. Consequently, diversity in BCE2 extends beyond race, gender, and socio-economic status, including a diversity of student ages, education, and cultural backgrounds – multi-dimensional diversity.

Led by the College of Engineering at a research university and drawing from critical principles from engaged learning and innovation ecosystem environments and best practices for STEM learning, BCE2 is developing a system across different types of institutions that is woven into the cultural fabric of the region. As such, this effort seeks to impact attraction and retention across the STEM pipeline, but also attraction and retention to the geographic region in which they are making contributions. The BCE2 effort applies elements of the persistence framework (Graham, Frederick, Byars-Winston, Hunter, &amp; Handelsman, 2013) with early research and active learning in the community. Early experience in applications of STEM can also help build confidence and identity related to STEM. Identity with a discipline is one of the strongest indicators of persistence in that discipline (Andersen &amp; Ward, 2014) and active learning can support diversity in sense-making and identity (Danielak, Gupta, &amp; Elby, 2014).

Preliminary findings from reflections, interviews, ethnographic observations, and surveys on progress in attraction and retention, particularly along the dimension of identity, indicate progress in several of the outcome categories. Exposure to both the community projects and the weekly seminars regarding STEM fields has contributed to student formation as future STEM professionals. Following the summer internship experience, students, including those coming from the high schools the community college, have indicated that their conceptualization of STEM field possibilities is wider and a career path is clearer. A few of students indicated interest in taking new STEM-related courses and one is considering switching within STEM-related disciplines. In addition, survey responses regarding feeling connection to the region provide information pertinent to developing a geographically specific STEM workforce. Researchers conducted a paired-samples t-test to determine differences pre- and post-intervention. There was a statistically significant increase in interns reporting feeling a connection to the region with a large effect size. At this stage of the grant, these findings are promising for potential to impact diversity in STEM – from both a geographic and human resources perspective.

AU - Danielle Wood
AU - Alisa Zornig Gura
AU - Jay B. Brockman
AU - Sam Alptekin
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 4: Student Outcomes in Academic Community-Engaged STEM Projects with Multi-Dimensional Diversity
UR - https://peer.asee.org/30025
DO - 10.18260/1-2--30025
ER -