Search for: All records

Researchers theorize that identification with a career field is achieved when there is alignment between student values and their perceptions of the values a career field meets. Stereotypically, engineering is perceived to align with status values, such as high pay, but the reality is that engineering is a collaborative enterprise that solves important social challenges. The goal of this study was to understand how highlighting this broader review of engineering (i.e., altruistic framing) affected students’ interest in the field. We evaluated a traditional Saturday STEM program for Southern, urban African American youth that did not include a significant altruism component. In parallel, we designed a program for this same demographic group that used Grand Challenges for Engineering to create altruistic framing that highlights the impacts of engineering on society and our everyday lives. Students from the same region as the traditional STEM program were recruited for this new summer camp program called Tomorrow’s Community Innovators. We compared the impacts of the traditional STEM program to the camp with altruistic framing to explore how they impacted students’ attitudes towards engineering and perceptions of the field.