More Like this

1. STEM Summer Camp for Girls Positively Affects Self-Efficacy

   https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2023.85.8.432  

   Broder, E. Dale; Fetrow, Kirsten J.; Murphy, Shannon M.; Hoffman, Jennifer L.; Tinghitella, Robin M. (October 2023, The American Biology Teacher)

   Women and racially and ethnically minoritized populations are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Out-of-school time programs like summer camps can provide positive science experiences that may increase self-efficacy and awareness of STEM opportunities. Such programs often use the same high-impact practices used in K–12 classrooms including relating concepts to real-world examples, engaging students as active participants in inquiry-driven projects, and facilitating learning in a cooperative context. They additionally provide opportunities for engaging in STEM without fear of failure, offer a community of mentors, and allow families to become more involved. We designed a summer camp for middle schoolers who identified as girls, low-income, and as a minoritized race or ethnicity. We describe the design of the camp as well as the results from a simple pre- and post-camp questionnaire that examined each camper’s relationship to science, scientific self-efficacy, and interest in having a job in STEM. We found an increase in self-efficacy in camp participants, which is important because high scientific self-efficacy predicts student performance and persistence in STEM, especially for girls. We did not detect an increase in interest in pursuing a STEM job, likely because of already high values for this question on the pre-camp survey. We add to the growing body of work recognizing the potential of out-of-school time STEM programs to increase scientific self-efficacy for girls and racially minoritized students. Tweet: Summer camp for minoritized middle-school girls increases scientific self-efficacy, a characteristic that may be important for removing barriers to participation in STEM. 

   more » « less
2. Representing Percents and Personas: Designing Syncretic Curricula for Modeling and Statistical Reasoning

   Radke, Sarah C.; Vogel, Sara; Hoadley, Christopher; Ma, Jasmine Y. (June 2020, International Conference of the Learning Sciences)

   Syncretic literacy can link everyday and scientific concepts in student learning. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a curricular unit in a bilingual middle school science class developed to help students link everyday conceptions, conceptions from math, science, and computer science, and their own broad linguistic repertoires to support syncretic literacy in modeling and statistics in a unit on post-Hurricane Maria outmigration from Puerto Rico. The unit invited students to use printed maps, physical objects, computer code, and simulations to explore concepts such as percentages and scientific models, framed by an approach from translanguaging pedagogy. Qualitative study showed that this approach supported students to engage productively in the tensions between scientific and everyday conceptions as described in Gutiérrez (2014), while using language resources from across communities and disciplines. 

   more » « less
3. Re-imagining Classroom Tools: Modeling Mathematics in MicroProgramming Environments

   Jackson, Amber; Alegre, Fernando; Moreno, Juana (November 2025, Kent State University)

   Kosko, K W; Caniglia, J; Courtney, S A; Zolfaghari, M; Morris, G A (Ed.)

   This paper presents an initiative aimed at integrating tailor-made micro-programming environments (MPEs) into middle school mathematics education to foster student learning and enhance computational thinking skills. We examine the effectiveness of MPEs in engaging students in computational thinking, aligning with mathematical practice standards, and usability in promoting interdisciplinary connections between mathematics and computing in the middle school setting. Findings suggest MPEs can advance computational thinking skills and enrich lesson alignment with educational standards. Most participants indicated approval of integrating MPEs into middle school classrooms. 

   more » « less
4. Integrating Technology in the Classroom to Engage Students

   Aji, C. A. (January 2019, 2019 ASEE 126th National Confere)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper will share the design of a learning environment that uses flight simulator-based activities designed to cognitively engage middle school students. The flight simulator provides an exciting, realistic, and engaging learning experience. It allows students to recognize the linkage between the concepts and application in real-world. Lesson plans were developed for several math and physics concepts integrating the flight simulator activities. To ensure buy-in for classroom implementation, the topics of these lessons were identified in consultation with the local middle school STEM teachers. Professional development on using the pedagogical approach was then provided to teachers from the middle schools that serve primarily underrepresented populations. Middle school students experienced the learning environment as part of a summer camp to deeply understand some science and math concepts. A quasi experimental between-subjects research design was used. Pre-post content and attitude instruments were utilized to collect data for determining the effectiveness of the approach. This paper provides an updated analysis (N = 50) combining the previously reported data from the 2017 camp and the implementation results of the summer 2018 camp. Results indicated statistically significant gains in students’ content knowledge and positive changes in attitudes of mainly female students towards science, technology, engineering and math. 

   more » « less
5. Building Computational Skills Via Exergames

   Harriger, Alka; Harriger, Bradley; Flynn, Susan (February 2021, Technology and engineering teacher)

   null (Ed.)

   Teaching Engineering Concepts to Harness Future Innovators and Technologists (TECHFIT) was an NSF-funded science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) project (DRL-1312215) (Harriger B. , Harriger, Flynn, & Flynn, 2013) that included a professional development (PD) program for teachers and an afterschool program for students. Curriculum and Assessment Design to Study the Development of Motivation and Computational Thinking for Middle School Students across Three Learning Contexts is an NSF-funded research project (DRL-1640178) (Harriger A. , Harriger, Parker, & Li, 2016) that examines the impact of delivering the TECHFIT curriculum to middle school students in three different contexts: afterschool program, in-school class, core class module. Thus far, the new project has deployed TECHFIT using the first two contexts, both of which use the entire TECHFIT curriculum. The goal of the TECHFIT curriculum is to spark interest in STEM and computational thinking (CT) in middle school students. The curriculum employs two computer programming tools as well as physical computing to introduce participants to STEM and CT. It also includes use of brain blasts to engage participants in a wide variety of physical activity throughout the instruction as well as to enrich their imaginations with different ways to make movement fun. This paper focuses on the process of exergame development using TECHFIT tools as a way to support CT skills development. The process is illustrated using a complete example from inception to a picture of teachers testing the working, physical exergame. 

   more » « less