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An interdisciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students at Illinois State University is partnering with the Chicago Public Schools district (CPS) and non-profit Community-Based Organizations in four Chicago neighborhoods to create a new after-school STEM program known as SUPERCHARGE. Funded by NSF, the primary purpose of the project is to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who pursue STEM fields at the postsecondary level. Faculty from STEM and STEM education program areas as well as the National Center for Urban Education at Illinois State University comprise the leadership team for the project. Guided by the National Research Council’s STEM Learning Ecosystem Model, SUPERCHARGE will contribute to the disruption of inequities that hinder access to STEM career pipelines for participants by serving as a bridge between informal high school academic experiences, STEM-related higher education programs, and STEM-related career pathways. Research to determine the impact of the program on students' interest, understanding, and self-efficacy towards STEM careers, as well as teachers and undergraduate students’ understanding of promoting change, will also be conducted. The Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) Common Instrument for students and teachers, and interviews with stakeholders are being used to support data gathering and program feedback. These data sources will be used for program assessment and future research.
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FRAMING A STEM EDUCATION-CAREER BRIDGE PROGRAM WITH A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP MODEL AND FORENSICS ANALYTICS
The National Science Foundation funded the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) for a three-year bridge program to broaden the participation in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by female students. UCO is a state university in the United States. The project team proposed a global government-university-industry (GUI) model to collaborate with partnering institutions at the international, federal, and state levels. Partnering institutions included IBM, the FBI, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, the Francis Tuttle Innovation Center, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Representatives from these partnering institutions served in the roles of advisory board members and internship sponsors who identified skill requirements and job trends. For phase one (2018), the focus was the research and development (R&D) and the implementation of a STEM program with a focus on Forensics Analytics (FA). The STEM+FA curriculum was designed with real-world applications and emerging technologies (e.g. IBM Watson, simulation, virtual reality). The STEM+FA pilot program consisted of simulated learning environments, STEM modules, cloud-based tutorials, and relational databases. These databases were similar to the Combined DNA Index System and Automated Fingerprint Identification System which have been adopted by the FBI and the OSBI to solve modern-day crimes (e.g. cyber security, homicide). Researchers pilot tested the STEM+FA program by collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. Findings derived from the pilot study evidenced that the STEM+FA pilot program had positive effects on female student career awareness and perceived competencies; whereas career interest remained unchanged.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1758975
- PAR ID:
- 10124700
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of applied global research
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 26
- ISSN:
- 1940-1841
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 61-77
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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