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With the ongoing transition to the knowledge-based, mobile economy, cities in the United States recognize the importance of a STEM-literate workforce. In the depopulated, legacy industrial areas in the Midwest, cities fight to attract and retain an educated workforce – particularly workers with STEM skills. STEM-related jobs, which generally have higher wages and growth are important to stabilizing and rebuilding their communities in the Digital Age. Yet, these areas also tend to have higher percentages of those underrepresented in STEM, including low socio-economic status (LSES) and underrepresented minorities (URM). Engagement and retention in STEM disciplines is of national importance, but for these regions it is critical to competing in the knowledge economy and revitalizing these cities. The Center for Civic Innovation at the University of Notre Dame (UND) piloted a program leveraging what we know about STEM engagement, project-based learning (PBL), academic community engagement, and asset-based community development with federal support (NSF IUSE Exploration and Design Tier for Engaged Student Learning & Institution and Community Transformation). Through examination and refinement, researchers developed the Community-Engaged Educational Ecosystem Model (C-EEEM, pronounced ‘seam’). The C-EEEM pilot contributed to our understanding of how to build learning environments that support 1) improvements in student motivation and retention in STEM; 2) changes in place attachment for participants; and 3) community impacts from project implementation. Through support of an NSF IUSE Development and Implementation Tier grant, the C-EEEM is now in its second year for replication in two cities, Youngstown, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky
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This content will become publicly available on June 22, 2026
NSF IUSE: Leveraging Institutional and Community Capacities in Implementing Community-Engaged STEM PBL
With higher and faster growing wages [1], STEM-related employment has been key to building thriving communities. In the deindustrialized Midwest, however, cities often have poverty rates double the national average, lower educational attainment, and the ‘brain drain’ problem [2]. These issues create barriers to developing and retaining a regional STEM workforce and competing in the knowledge economy. Thus, STEM engagement is not just a national imperative, but critical to revitalizing these Midwestern cities. The University of Notre Dame developed and piloted a program to address the challenges of STEM engagement/retention in the disciplines and place retention. The program leveraged high impact practices such as immersive place-based education (internships), academic community engagement, and STEM-based experiential problem-based learning, while interns engaged in asset-based community development in the South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana region [3-14]. The pilot program was distilled into a model through evidence-based refinement – the Community- Engaged Educational Ecosystem Model (C-EEEM, pronounced ‘seam’), and contributes to our understanding of building learning environments that meet those challenges [4-6, 15-18].
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- Award ID(s):
- 2111386
- PAR ID:
- 10613398
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Annual Conference
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Montreal, QC, Canada
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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