Impact of a Summer Research Program for High School Students on Their Intent to Pursue a STEM Career: Overview, Goals, and Outcomes
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
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Pre-college Engineering Education Division Technical Session 5
- Tagged Division
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Pre-College Engineering Education
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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19
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--34751
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/34751
- Download Count
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538
Paper Authors
Marialice Mastronardi University of Texas at Austin
PhD student, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education at University of Texas, Austin
M.S. in Electronic Engineering, Polytechnic of Milan (Italy), 2006
Audrey Boklage University of Texas at Austin
Audrey Boklage is research assistant and director of the curriculum lab at Texas Inventionworks in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She is particularly interested in improving the culture and environment of undergraduate education experience for all students, particularly those from underrepresented groups.
Risa D. Hartman University of Texas at Austin, NASCENT Center
Risa Hartman oversees multiple Education and Outreach programs at the University of Texas at Austin. Her roles include: Staff Education and Outreach Director for the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials, a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and as the Pre-college Education Director for the NASCENT Engineering Research Center focused on nanomanufacturing. She manages programs in the areas of graduate student traineeship and career development, undergraduate research, Research Experiences for K-12 Teachers, high school student research internships, and general science/engineering outreach to the local K-12 community.
Darlene Yañez University of Texas at Austin, NASCENT Center
Darlene A. Yañez, Ph.D
Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
10100 Burnet Rd., MER 1.206Z, R-8800, Austin, TX 78712 (512)232-7849
dyanez@che.utexas.edu
Professional Preparation
2001 Ph.D., Education Administration, The University of Texas at Austin
1981 M.Ed., Education Leadership, Pan American University at Edinburg, TX
1975 B.A., English, Linguistics, Pan American University at Edinburg, TX
1982 Superintendent’s Certification, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX
1981 Mid-management Certificate, Pan American University at Edinburg, TX
1975 Teaching Certification, Pan American University at Edinburg, TX
Appointments
09/2018-present RET Master Teacher Coordinator; Special Projects, The University of Texas at Austin; Cockrell
School of Engineering, NASCENT Education Research Center
11/1/12-2018 Evaluator, Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Cockrell School of Engineering, NASCENT Education Research Center
09/1/11-present External evaluator, Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Sustainable Grid Integration of Distributed and Renewable Resources (IGERT)
09/2003-08/2005 Principal Investigator, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
Charles A. Dana Center, Texas Teachers Empowered for Achievement in Mathematics and Science
(TEXTEAMS) Mentoring Academies
09/2003-08/2005 Principal Investigator, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Charles A. Dana
Center, Evaluation of the Literacy Intervention of AmeriCorps for Community Engagement and
Education (ACEE)
08/2005-08/2006 Adjunct Professor Department of Education Administration, The University of Texas at Austin
01/2007- 08/2009 Project Director, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Charles A. Dana
Center, Texas Center for STEM Education (TC-STEM)
08/2003-12/2007 Director, Research and Evaluation, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
Charles A.Dana Center
10/1996-07/2003 Program Coordinator, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Charles A. Dana
Center
11/1992-09/1996 Director, Texas Education Agency, Austin, TX Division of Accelerated Instruction of Instructional
Services,
09/1990-10/1992 Program Director, Corpus Christi Independent School District
09/1985-08/1989 Principal and Assistant principal, Corpus Christi Independent School District
09/1977-08/1985 Classroom teacher at Corpus Christi, Point Isabel, Brownsville, and Pharr-San Juan-Alamo
Independent School Districts
Selected Publications
Yanez, D. (2001). Implementing state-initiated reform: Mathematics TEKS. Unpublished dissertation, The University
of Texas at Austin.
Watt, K. & Yanez, D. (2001). AVID: A comprehensive school reform model for Texas, Paper presented at 2001 AERA Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington.
Yanez, D. & Wenrick, M. (2000) Improving Algebra I End-of-Course Exam Scores: Evidence from the field, [Website]. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin, The Charles A. Dana Center, Available: http://www.tenet.edu/teks/math/index.html.
Yanez, D. (1999). Advanced placement capacity assessment tool (APCAT). Austin: The University of Texas, The Charles A. Dana Center.
Yanez, D. (1999). A study of ten pilot districts using data-driven decision making. Texas Education Agency’s Commissioner’s Public Access Initiative.
(1997). Educators supporting educators. Contributing author. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, Va.
Collaborations and other affiliations
2012 Dissertation Coach - Sidney K. Mitchell University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
2008 Contributing Author: Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing American for a Brighter Economic
Future (Commissioned by Dean MaryAnn Rankin and TAMEST, Texas Response)
2007-08 Steering Committee for Texas High School Project funded by Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT)
2003 Member of dissertation committee for Margarita Greer (CSP Fellow)
Member of dissertation committee for Roland Heranadez (CSP Fellow)
The University of Texas at Austin, Education Administration Department Martha Ovando and
Nolan Estes (collaboration for development of curriculum for new co-hort of CSP Fellows)
1993 Cooperative Superintendent’s Program (CSP) Fellow
Community Activities
2011-Present Travis County Juvenile Justice Department, Education Consultant
2009-Present E3 Alliance P-16 Council and various committees
2009 Advised/supported development of district strategic plan for Title I
Compliance San Benito Consolidated Independent School District
2002 Austin Independent School District School Board Candidate
Maura J. Borrego University of Texas at Austin
Maura Borrego is Director of the Center for Engineering Education and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Borrego is Senior Associaate Editor for Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. She previously served as Deputy Editor for Journal of Engineering Education, a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, on the board of the American Society for Engineering Education, and as an associate dean and director of interdisciplinary graduate programs. Her research awards include U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and two outstanding publication awards from the American Educational Research Association for her journal articles. All of Dr. Borrego’s degrees are in Materials Science and Engineering. Her M.S. and Ph.D. are from Stanford University, and her B.S. is from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Abstract
The Young Scholars (YS) program at the National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT) at UT Austin, was a seven week long summer research experience designed for high school students entering 10-12th grade. The main goal of the program was to provide young women and underrepresented minority high school students with a laboratory research experience and inspire them to enter college and pursue STEM degree s. Each summer, students from local high schools were selected to participate in laboratory research as scholars under the supervision of a mentoring graduate student and faculty member. Each team composed of two YSs and their graduate mentor tackled problems in nanomanufacturing and made significant contributions to ongoing research projects. At the end of the program, each high school student gave a final presentation of the results to family members, teachers, graduate students and faculty. Over seven years, the YS program has hosted a total of 53 students, among them 56% women and 60% underrepresented minorities (URM). In preparation for their research project, the YSs spent their first week participating in a "boot camp" that included a welcome orientation, short courses in fundamentals of nanotechnologies, basic concepts in engineering, laboratory safety training, Innovators’ DNA skills’ seminar, and an introduction to research. Following their bootcamp, students were expected to work on their project, performing original research under the supervision of their graduate mentor, read reference material and maintain a laboratory notebook. To supplement students’ research experience, YSs participated in technical and career development seminars, field trips to local nanotechnology companies, and social activities. Quality assessment of the program was performed by analyzing responses from pre- and post-surveys of the 2016 to 2019 cohorts. The main focus of this analysis is investigating the satisfaction of the participants and the impact of the program in increasing interest in a STEM career. The data analysis shows increasing awareness among participants of the many career opportunities in STEM and confidence in their ability to pursue a STEM career. Other aspects assessed are participants’ confidence in conducting research and presenting findings, using lab tools, understanding scientific articles and guest lecturers’ seminars. Among the 39 YSs who graduated high school to date, 24 YSs are pursuing engineering degrees, 14 are majoring in non-engineering STEM disciplines, and 1 has attended trade school and is now interning at Samsung Semiconductor. These results confirm that the YS program has been extremely successful in achieving its above stated goals. Getting published; I was not expecting it and during the last week of the program it was a
Mastronardi, M., & Boklage, A., & Hartman, R. D., & Yañez, D., & Borrego, M. J. (2020, June), Impact of a Summer Research Program for High School Students on Their Intent to Pursue a STEM Career: Overview, Goals, and Outcomes Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34751
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