The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Parents’ Perceptions About STEM (Work in Progress)

Luke G. Grzech; Jessica Marie Faber; Murad Musa Mahmoud; Kurt Henry Becker

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division Poster Session
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37853
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/37853
Download Count: 225

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Paper Authors

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Luke G. Grzech Wartburg College

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Luke is a Student in the Engineering Science Department at Wartburg College. He is getting his major in Engineering Science and Minors in Mathematics and Leadership. Research interests include recruitment into STEM and diversity in STEM.

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Jessica Marie Faber Wartburg College

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Jessica is a student at Wartburg College studying Engineering Science with a minor in Creative Writing and Mathematics. She is active with soccer at Wartburg and works for the innovation Studio in the Engineering department.

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Murad Musa Mahmoud Wartburg College orcid.org/0000-0002-7810-6046

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Murad is an Assistant Professor at the Engineering Science Department at Wartburg College. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Utah State University. Research interests include recruitment into STEM, diversity in STEM as well pedagogy and instruction.

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Kurt Henry Becker Utah State University

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Kurt Becker is a professor in the department of engineering education and his areas of research include engineering design thinking, adult learning cognition, engineering education professional development and technical training. He is currently working on National Science Foundation funded projects exploring engineering design systems thinking and several GEAR UP STARS projects funded by the US Department of Education. He has extensive international experience working on technical training and engineering education projects funded by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and U.S. Department of Labor, USAID. Countries where he has worked include Armenia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Thailand.

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Abstract

The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Parents’ Perceptions about STEM (Work In Progress)

The perceptions of parents regarding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) before and after their child attended a summer STEM camp will be analyzed in this paper. Starting in July 2016 through July 2019, groups of students attended weeklong STEM camps. These camps were designed to spark students’ interest in STEM while preparing them academically for higher education. Funding for the camps was provided by a seven year grant from the Department of Education as a part of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEARUP) program. Because the first year of this camp was a pilot year, only results from the last three years of the camp will be used. Another camp was scheduled in 2020, but was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Each of the STEM camps lasted five days, during which time, students participated in a multitude of STEM related activities that varied from year to year. During the hands-on and thought-provoking STEM activities, students collaborated with science teachers, as well as faculty and graduate students at the land grant university. Throughout each camp, parents were kept informed through a blog that was updated daily with the activities their children were involved in. The blog posts included pictures/videos of the activities, brief descriptions of the activities they were doing, as well as quotes from the journals students completed at the end of each day.

Prior to and following the STEM camps, surveys pertaining to STEM were given to all the students and their parents. The parents’ surveys contained questions about their perception of STEM, their feelings about their child choosing a STEM field, and some basic questions about income, educational background and occupation. The focus of this paper will be to examine parents’ perceptions of STEM, as well as their thoughts about STEM careers and STEM camps.

Analysis of the data is ongoing and will consist of examining both the qualitative and quantitative data in a mixed methods analysis. By analyzing the data presented in the surveys, the researchers will have a better understanding of parents’ influential role in their child’s future career plans and interests.

Citation
Format

Grzech, L. G., & Faber, J. M., & Mahmoud, M. M., & Becker, K. H. (2021, July), The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Parents’ Perceptions About STEM (Work in Progress) Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37853

TY - CPAPER
AB - The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Parents’ Perceptions about STEM (Work In Progress)

The perceptions of parents regarding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) before and after their child attended a summer STEM camp will be analyzed in this paper. Starting in July 2016 through July 2019, groups of students attended weeklong STEM camps. These camps were designed to spark students’ interest in STEM while preparing them academically for higher education. Funding for the camps was provided by a seven year grant from the Department of Education as a part of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEARUP) program. Because the first year of this camp was a pilot year, only results from the last three years of the camp will be used. Another camp was scheduled in 2020, but was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Each of the STEM camps lasted five days, during which time, students participated in a multitude of STEM related activities that varied from year to year. During the hands-on and thought-provoking STEM activities, students collaborated with science teachers, as well as faculty and graduate students at the land grant university. Throughout each camp, parents were kept informed through a blog that was updated daily with the activities their children were involved in. The blog posts included pictures/videos of the activities, brief descriptions of the activities they were doing, as well as quotes from the journals students completed at the end of each day.

Prior to and following the STEM camps, surveys pertaining to STEM were given to all the students and their parents. The parents’ surveys contained questions about their perception of STEM, their feelings about their child choosing a STEM field, and some basic questions about income, educational background and occupation. The focus of this paper will be to examine parents’ perceptions of STEM, as well as their thoughts about STEM careers and STEM camps.

Analysis of the data is ongoing and will consist of examining both the qualitative and quantitative data in a mixed methods analysis. By analyzing the data presented in the surveys, the researchers will have a better understanding of parents’ influential role in their child’s future career plans and interests.
AU - Luke G. Grzech
AU - Jessica Marie Faber
AU - Murad Musa Mahmoud
AU - Kurt Henry Becker
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Parents’ Perceptions About STEM (Work in Progress)
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/37853
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37853
ER -