There is growing enthusiasm for STEAM education in preparing students for an increasingly complex world. However, implementing STEAM in the classroom can be challenging for educators, as it may require collaboration across disciplines, increased workload, and understanding the nature of STEAM integration. This paper details a mixed-methods evaluation of a year-long STEAM teacher training program, in which a STEM teacher and an arts teacher collaborated to design and implement integrated STEAM lessons at each of the nine participating schools (n = 17). The training program consisted of a 5-week summer professional development experience, followed by ongoing financial, material, and pedagogical support during the school year, made possible by the partnership of the schools, a university, and community organizations. Findings from surveys, focus groups, and written reflections suggest that, despite certain challenges, aspects of the training program supported teacher implementation of STEAM. Participation in the program impacted teachers’ collaboration, pedagogy, self-efficacy, and arts integration practices. The findings offer insight into the forms of support that teachers deem important in STEAM teacher training programs and the benefits of such a program for teachers’ professional development.

The present study compared the effectiveness of a self-affirmation and a role model guest lecture intervention on reducing students' perceptions of science-related social identity threat. Participants included 67 Latino high school students enrolled in a college preparation program. Students were randomly assigned either to a self-affirmation intervention or a self-affirmation control task, and the role model intervention was open to all students, with some choosing to participate. Results from an ANCOVA found the combination of both interventions had an identity threat reducing effect of moderate magnitude on perceptions of identity threat, and planned contrasts found statistically significant differences in perceptions of identity threat between students who received both interventions and no intervention, and between students who received both interventions and the self-affirmation task alone. Our research suggests that using multiple and combined interventions might provide an important advantage in order to reduce perceptions of identity threat in Latino students.

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Purpose This paper aims to provide a snapshot of K-12 Latino families’ beliefs about education, their awareness and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers and their perceived educational challenges. It builds on the existent body of literature by dispelling pervasive notions that Latino parents do not value education. It contributes to the field by providing evidence of Latino parents’ beliefs, awareness and interest in STEM careers for their children. Design/methodology/approach This study reports the results of a focus group needs assessment conducted with Latino parents, surveys and interviews collected for three years during Latino family-focused events. Findings Surveyed parents thought children should attend college to prepare for a better future and career decisions should be dependent on their preference and vocation. They believed STEM careers were important for the Latino community and reported talking to their children about having a job in STEM. Parents perceived several challenges for their children’s education, such as cost, immigration status, lack of information and language barriers. Practical implications Stereotypes regarding Latino family’s beliefs about education have implications for how school systems, educational gatekeepers and stakeholders perceive these students’ opportunities. This paper discredits the perception that Latino parents are not interested in their children attending college or pursuing STEM careers. Originality/value There is a dearth of information about Latino families’ perceptions of their children’s educational goals, knowledge of STEM careers and their interest in such fields. This paper provides a fundamental step toward filling that gap.

With the inclusion of engineering disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) position engineering as a new priority in K-12 science classrooms. This paper reports findings from the implementation of SLIDER, a problem-based learning 8th grade physical science curriculum that integrates engineering and physical science core ideas. As a culminating engineering design challenge, the SLIDER curriculum asks students to apply their understanding of energy, motion, and forces to design an automatic braking system for a robotic truck. The paper describes the curriculum and synthesizes findings from an array of data sources including student design interviews, written design recommendations, engineering notebooks, pre-and post-assessments, and teacher interviews to address two research questions: (1) To what extent and in what ways do students participating in the SLIDER curriculum engage in NGSS engineering DCIs: defining problems, developing solutions, and optimizing solutions? (2) To what extent and in what ways do students draw upon their understanding of science concepts as they engage in engineering design? Findings indicate variations in the degree to which students participating in the SLIDER curriculum engaged across the three NGSS engineering DCIs, with students generally demonstrating competency with regard to identifying and delimiting the engineering problem (ETS1.A) and, to varying degrees, developing solutions (ETS1.B) but experiencing more challenges engaging in the optimization of design solutions (ETS1.C). Findings also illustrate the degree to which students were able to apply their knowledge of relevant physical science core ideas (e.g., friction, force) as they developed and communicated their solutions. Implications of the findings for instruction, curriculum development, and assessment are discussed.