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Leveraging Innovation and Optimizing Nurturing in STEM (NSF S-STEM #2130022, known locally as LION STEM Scholars) is a program developed to serve low-income undergraduate Engineering students at Penn State Berks, a regional campus of the Pennsylvania State University. As part of the program, scholars participate in a four-year comprehensive multi- tiered mentoring program and cohort experience. The LION STEM curricular program includes Engineering Ahead (a 4-week summer residential math-intensive bridge program prior to entering college), a first semester First-Year Seminar, and a second semester STEM-Persistence Seminar. Co-curricular activities focus on professional communication skills, financial literacy, career readiness, undergraduate research, and community engagement. The program seeks to accomplish four goals: (1) adapt, implement, and analyze evidence-based curricular and co- curricular activities to support, retain, and graduate a diverse set of the project's engineering scholars, (2) implement, test, and study through research and project evaluation strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM, including development of STEM identity, (3) contribute to the knowledge base through investigation of the project's four-year multi-modal program so that other colleges may successfully implement similar programs, and (4) disseminate outcomes and findings related to the supports and interventions that promote student success to other institutions working to support low-income STEM students. The purpose of this paper is to analyze data from a repeated-measures design to provide a holistic narrative about the effects that the academic and support activities offered to LION STEM Scholars have on the development of their future-engineer role identity throughout their first year as an undergraduate engineering student. This paper presents data collected from semi- structured (Smith & Osborn, 2007) audio-recorded interviews from the first cohort of LION STEM Scholars (n=7) at three different time points (pre-summer bridge, post-summer bridge, end of first semester) as well as data collected from a written survey at the end of scholars’ second semester.
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Investigating the Impact of Arts on Student Learning by Introducing Glass Science in the Materials Engineering Curriculum
The research will create an academic program (curricular and co-curricular components) that integrates art concepts into an undergraduate engineering program. The goals of the program are increased student innovation, creativity, collegiality, and entrepreneurship, all while broadening the undergraduate talent pool. The programmatic elements are focused on integration of arts in STEM (i.e. STEAM) to achieve the stated goals. The centerpiece is the infusion of STEAM content into laboratories and courses distributed throughout a model engineering program in Metallurgical Engineering. Curricular modifications will be facilitated through involvement of a Resident Artist who will be embedded within the academic program. The research is evidence-based and builds on prior NSF Course Curricular and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) research that involved highly successful curricular and co-curricular programming associated with integration of blacksmithing into an undergraduate Metallurgical Engineering degree program. A rigorous external assessment of the research will be conducted and includes the use of a variety of assessment tools including Herrmann Brain Dominance Inventory, Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), and student focus groups. Preliminary results from the SGID and student focus group surveys report positive results with the modified curricula that has been integrated into the initial course, Introduction to Metallurgical Engineering. Student surveys were performed with a primary focus on student advancement in areas of creativity, innovation, and technical knowledge. The self-efficacy studies illustrate a general increase in the students’ perception of their creative skills and technical knowledge.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2120156
- PAR ID:
- 10358308
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE Annual Conference proceedings
- ISSN:
- 1524-4644
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-10
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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