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1. BUILDERS: A Project-Based Learning Experience to Foster STEM Interest in Students from Underserved High Schools

   Escobar, Martha ; Qazi, Mohammed ( December 2020 , Journal of STEM education)

   Banu, Eliza A. (Ed.)

   Access to enriching science programs is not equitable, with students from affluent districts having more opportunities to develop their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills than students from underserved districts. The Building Unique Inventions to Launch Discovery, Engagement, and Reasoning in STEM (BUILDERS) program was started in 2017 with support from the National Science Foundation’s ITEST program to provide students from the Alabama Black Belt with STEM opportunities to which they would otherwise have no access. This project-based learning (PBL) program uses the concept of a makerspace to allow students to explore how science and technology can be used to solve the problems that affect their own communities. During an intensive, 3-week summer experience (the BUILDERS Academy), teams of students enthusiastically use the makerspace to design, build, and test prototypes of technology-based solutions to their community problems. During this immersive PBL process, they acquire and apply STEM concepts, learn about STEM careers, and acquire valuable 21st century skills. An extension of the summer Academy into the academic year was moderately successful. Overall, these results highlight the need to make extracurricular STEM interventions available to underserved students in order to increase equitable access to practical and enriching educational experiences in STEM. 

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2. Problem-Based Learning Increases STEM Interest for High School Students and Instructors

   https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2021.23  

   Reider, David ; Davis, Nanasi ; Nariman, Nahid ( January 2021 , The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2021)

   The goal of Project STEMulate, a National Science Foundation ITEST study (DRL 1657625), was to develop, implement, and evaluate a program that fosters success in STEM for underserved and underrepresented high school students. The project was implemented at three sites of the Department of Education Upward Bound Program in Hawaiˋi. Project STEMulate delivered teacher training on Problem-Based Learning curriculum to ensure students were motivated and empowered, and to support STEM- related postsecondary educational success of Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students. A critical design goal of the program was to introduce teaching and learning strategies and processes that were more relevant to underrepresented youth populations than those offered in typical high schools to provide opportunities and to increase participation in the STEM study and career trajectory, something all too often out of mind and scope of these students. This study reports on three years of mixed methods summer academy data on both student and teacher learning outcomes. Teacher dispositions, evidenced through data from interviews, observations, and multi-point surveys improved in a majority of the dimensions, including teaching inquiry-based approaches, integrating technology, and STEM career knowledge and awareness. Student motivation, Science self-efficacy, and STEM career interest, evidenced from similar data sources, increased as well. Finally, we discuss the larger implications of extending this work to impact similar populations elsewhere of isolated, under- resourced and under-exposed youth with these proven strategies. 

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3. Enhancing Graduate Education by Fully Integrating Research and Professional Skill Development within a Diverse, Inclusive, and Supportive Academy

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34569  

   Santillan-Jimenez, E. ; Duan, Q. ; Dariotis, J. K. ; Crocker, M. ( January 2020 , 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   Graduate training often takes a monodisciplinary approach that is not informed by best practices, ignores the needs and preferences of students, and overlooks the increasingly interdisciplinary and international nature of research. This is unfortunate, particularly since graduate education that is fully integrated with interdisciplinary research can help students become part of a trained and diverse workforce equipped to meet society’s many challenges. Against this backdrop, a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) program is being established at the University of Kentucky leveraging the most effective instruments for the training of STEM professionals, such as network-based graduate student mentoring and career preparation encompassing both technical and professional skillsets. Briefly, the training graduate students will receive – in a way that is fully integrated with the research they perform – includes: 1) tools such as individual development plans and developmental network maps; 2) a multi-departmental and interdisciplinary course on research-related content; 3) a seminar course on transferrable skills (ethics, research, communication, teaching, mentoring, entrepreneurship, teamwork, management, leadership, outreach, etc.); 4) a certificate to be awarded once students complete the two courses above and garner additional credits from an interdisciplinary curriculum of research-related courses; 5) summer internships at other departments and at external institutions (other universities, industry, national laboratories) nationwide or abroad; 6) an annual research-related symposium including all elements of a scientific conference; 7) internal collaborative research grants for participants to fund and pursue their own ideas; 8) fields trips to facilities related to the research; and 9) coaching on job hunting as well as résumé, motivation letter and interview preparation. Since a workforce equipped to meet society’s challenges must be both well trained and diverse, multiple initiatives will ensure that this NRT will broaden participation in STEM. Recruitment-wise, close collaboration with a number of entities will provide this NRT with a broad recruitment pool of talented and diverse students. Moreover, collaboration with these entities will provide trainees with ample opportunities to acquire, practice and refine their professional skills, as trainees present their results and recruit in conferences, meetings and outreach events organized by these entities, become members and/or join their leadership, and expand their professional and mentoring network in the process. In addition, minority trainees will be surveyed periodically to probe their feelings of well-being, preparation, acceptance, belonging and distress, as well as their perception of how well structured their departments and programs are. According to recent literature, these factors determine whether or not they perform (i.e., publish) at rates comparable to their male majority peers. Saliently, the evaluation of the educational model employed will afford a comprehensive understanding not only of the academy components that were more utilized and impactful, but will reveal the individual mentoring and skill-building facets of the program driving its successful implementation. The evaluation plan includes outcomes, performance measures, an evaluation timetable, benchmarks and a description of how formative evaluation will improve practice, the evaluation process also extending to research activities. 

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4. Learning From a Pandemic: Redesigning with Universal Design for Learning to Enhance Scientific Skills

   Thomas D. Montgomery, Bridget M. ( January 2023 , Journal of postsecondary education and disability)

   Colleges are becoming increasingly diverse, including strengthening representation of students with disabilities in STEM (Science, Teaching, Engineering, and Math) fields; however, representation still lags behind national trends. To adapt to this changing demographic and improve representation, STEM college professors must be prepared to grant equitable access to the STEM curriculum and enhance scientific communication skills. This practice brief outlines how a college science faculty applied the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to improve scientific communication skills equitably among college students with diverse needs during a 10-week NSF-REU (National Science Foundation – Research Experiences for Undergraduates) at the host institution summer program during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provides recommendations about how students with disabilities (i.e., chronic illness, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) which may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying the UDL framework increased student confidence in applying the scientific method and led to gains in students' perception of their ability to use their skills to solve scientific problems. STEM faculty can use the lessons from the NSF-REU summer program outlined in this work to develop inclusive and accessible STEM programs for students with diverse needs across the country. Moreover, this work highlights the need for STEM faculty to involve Disability Services coordinators as active members in research programs to ensure equity and inclusion. 

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5. Aerial Drone: an Effective Tool to Teach Information Technology and Cybersecurity through Project Based Learning to Minority High School Students in the U.S.

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-020-00502-7  

   Bhuyan, Jay ; Wu, Fan ; Thomas, Cassandra ; Koong, Kai ; Hur, Jung Won ; Wang, Chih-hsuan ( April 2020 , TechTrends)

   This paper describes the design, implementation, and results of an NSF funded Summer Academy from 2016 to 2018, which engaged, on an annual basis, 30 to 60 rising 10th and 11th grade high school science students in an innovative, technology enriched Project Based Learning (PBL) environment. This Academy emphasized how tech gadgets work and the impact that technology can have on improving communities by immersing students in the exploration of one such device that is a growing phenomenon, the “aerial drone.” In this Academy, the students learned various operations of the drone through Python programming language, and some cybersecurity issues and solutions. The student teams, under the guidance of diverse mentors, comprehensively fortified their STEM problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Both formative and summative evaluations for this Academy showed that it helped students improve their critical thinking ability and motivated them to pursue careers in STEM-related disciplines, specifically in information technology and cybersecurity areas. 

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