Enriching undergraduate experiences with outreach in school STEM clubs

Abstract

The need for a more robust, well-trained STEM workforce is becoming increasingly acute in the U.S., and there is a clear need to recruit and retain a larger and more diverse population of undergraduate STEM majors. While numerous efforts to improve engagement and support in the traditional P-16 classroom have been implemented successfully, it is also critical to explore other types of activities that have potential for high impact. The STEM Club Leadership for Undergraduate STEM Education, Recruiting and Success (STEM-CLUSTERS) project at our large public research university in the Mountain West presents an outreach model to engage undergraduate STEM majors in developing and facilitating activities in local middle and high school STEM clubs. Through case studies, built upon data from reflective journals and semistructured interviews, the project has identified a number of benefits to the first cohort of participants, which is comprised of eleven undergraduate students operating in interdisciplinary teams across five schools. In this paper we describe the essential elements of our outreach model and suggest benefits related to undergraduates' content knowledge, metacognition, communication skills, and identity as a future STEM professional.

Science identity and metacognitive development in undergraduate mentor-teachers

“…UMTs were part of either the learning assistant program or the Community STEM Clubs program. Both SSOPs are part of National Science Foundation funded studies that examine the impacts of different STEM SSOPs on undergraduate students' content knowledge, metacognition, problem solving, communication, and pedagogical skills (Ferrara et al, 2018;Talbot et al, 2015). These two programs were not intentionally designed together.…”

“…The Community STEM Clubs (CSC) Program is a K-12 outreach program in which undergraduate STEM students, designated CSC fellows, develop and facilitate inschool or afterschool STEM clubs or teams at a local middle or high school (Ferrara et al, 2018). Fellows work in interdisciplinary teams of two to three undergraduates and receive support from faculty mentors and the lead teachers in their host schools.…”

“…For example, STEM outreach programs with K-12 schools exists at smaller scales, and the STEM Communication course has been offered to students outside the scope of the NSF grant. We have a prior publication (Ferrara et al, 2018) that describes the impact of SSOPs on UMTs experiences, but it did not specifically explore areas of overlap and synthesis between science identity and metacognitive development. The UMTs in both LA and CSC SSOPs meet regularly with presiding faculty to reflect on and discuss the challenges and successes they encounter in their UMT roles.…”

A Course-Based Teaching Experience for STEM Undergraduates Improves Student Perceptions of Teaching Self-Efficacy and Attitudes Toward Teaching Careers

“…Undergraduates who taught genetics to middle and high school students through a course-based service-learning program showed significant gains in content knowledge in the subjects they taught ( Chrispeels et al ., 2014 ). Similarly, undergraduates leading after-school STEM clubs reported gains in content knowledge, metacognition, and science communication skills ( Ferrara et al ., 2017 ). Positive learning outcomes are also seen in the K–12 audience.…”

STEM Club Evaluation Scale: Validity and Reliability Study

“…When examining the relevant studies in the literature, out-of-school studies are found to have been conducted with STEM clubs in the title (Ferrara et al, 2017;Gottfried & Williams, 2013;Sahin, 2013). However, no studies were found to have examined, evaluated, or determined the deficiencies of STEM club studies.…”