Beyond Blackboards: Engaging Underserved Middle School Students in Engineering

Abstract

Beyond Blackboards is an inquiry-centered, after-school program designed to enhance middle school students' engagement with engineering through design-based experiences focused on the 21st Century Engineering Challenges. Set within a predominantly lowincome, majority-minority community, our study aims to investigate the impact of Beyond Blackboards on students' interest in and understanding of engineering, as well as their ability to align their educational and career plans. We compare participants' and nonparticipants' questionnaire responses before the implementation and at the end of the program's first academic year. Statistically significant findings indicate a school-wide increase in students' interest in engineering careers, supporting a shift in school culture. However, only program participants showed increased enjoyment of design-based strategies, understanding of what engineers do, and awareness of the steps for preparing for an engineering career. These quantitative findings are supported by qualitative evidence from participant focus groups highlighting the importance of mentors in shaping students' awareness of opportunities within engineering.

Research Evidence of the Impact of Engineering Design on Technology and Engineering Education Students

“…Sirinterlikci, Zane, and Sirinterlikci (2009) described the results of a survey administered to elementary and middle students involved in the TOYchallenge competition, finding that "some of the student survey responses reflected positive attitudes toward the engineering process, albeit their lack of interest in pursuing the field as an adult" (p. 20). Using mixed methods, Blanchard et al (2015) surveyed nearly 2,000 middle school students and conducted a focus group of 19 students who had participated in Beyond Blackboards, "an inquirycentered, after-school program designed to enhance middle school students' engagement with engineering through design-based experiences" (p. 1).…”

The St. Jude STEM Clubs: An Afterschool STEM Club for Upper Elementary School Students in Memphis, TN

“…OST STEM programs are particularly important for broadening participation in STEM careers, helping to make STEM subjects more inclusive and creating sustained interest and participation in STEM disciplines (NRC, 2015;Afterschool Alliance, 2015). Research shows that OST STEM programs have the potential to increase STEM content knowledge (Bhattacharyya, 2011;Blanchard, 2015;Mouza, 2016;Newell, 2015;Tyler-Wood, 2012); foster STEM skills and attitudes (Barker et al, 2014); increase understanding and perceptions of science and provide opportunities and skills missing in formal education, such as job skills and use of scientific equipment, as well as increase self-concept and empowerment (Fadigan, 2005); and create environments where young people can engage in activities connected to their interests, be positioned as leaders, and increase their view of science (Gonsalves, 2014). Despite these findings, the need for OST STEM programs remains high, especially in areas of concentrated poverty where accessibility and affordability can often be a barrier to participation (Afterschool Alliance, 2016).…”

Progress toward Lofty Goals: A Meta-synthesis of the State of Research on K-12 Engineering Education (Fundamental)

“…One additional paper [59] reported interest in engineering careers as an outcome without stating it as an explicit goal. Broadly, these papers suggest that a range of K-12 engineering activities have the potential to at least temporarily increase students' interest in engineering as a career [54,59,66,72,73,75,77,78,[84][85][86][87][88] However, many of these papers were also coded as reporting on interest in engineering as an outcome variable, and therefore have many of the same concerns that were identified in those papers. None of the studies that included interest in engineering careers as outcomes involved a delayed post assessment; as entry into a career is remote choice for most of the participants, this is of even more concern in regard to the usefulness of the data collected.…”

“…In a study of high school students who had completed engineering courses, student design process was compared to expert design process, finding that the students spent significantly less time gathering information, making decisions, and evaluating the feasibility of their design ideas [73]. Others present interpreted vignettes of classroom activity and detail methods such as interaction analysis [74] or ethnography [75]. For instance, in such research conducted in an elementary school, we see how students are able to identify and frame engineering problems in their own school that affect the students, and also that even young students can make predictions and plan testing of their prototypes when they are designing with contexts they understand in mind [76].…”

“…However, an additional three papers, although not having broadening participation as a stated goal, did in fact report the effect of engineering interventions on groups that are underrepresented in the engineering workforce. For example, Blanchard et al [75] measured gains in understanding of engineering design and engineering career awareness from before to after an after-school robotics intervention. These authors did not cite increased diversity in engineering as a goal, but report that their study population included a high percentage of Hispanic students, 79.71%, compared with a nationally representative sample of students.…”