Improving Access to Hands-On STEM Education using a Mobile Laboratory

CURE Connections (UMB CURE) connects West Baltimore high school students with STEM enrichment including hands-on research and community outreach. This study's purpose was to describe successes and challenges of implementing the virtual Community Health Worker curriculum during the summer programming for UMB CURE high school scholars. This certificate-based program was designed to teach students about the community health field while providing training that demonstrates competence as a community health worker. The training was implemented over two summer sessions (2020 and 2021). Scholars completed a survey to assess program satisfaction. A subset of scholars completed qualitative interviews that focused on scholars' summer program experience and recommendations for program improvement. Engagement metrics (scholar participation, retention) were compiled. Overall themes from qualitative interviews included (1) overall summer program experience, (2) about the Morehouse curriculum, (3) advice for future scholars, (4) in-person versus virtual summer program, and (5) recommendations for the program. While the program was generally well-received, scholars required more instruction and guidance than anticipated. Many found the required assignments challenging to navigate, citing virtual instruction as a reason. Scholars also requested more hands-on synchronous STEM-focused activities. These data will be used to modify future programming to engage scholars in out-of-school-time STEM initiatives.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Feasibility Study Describing the Successes and Challenges of Implementing a Virtual Community Health Worker Training Among High School Students Participating in a Summer STEM Enrichment Program

Vasanth Kumar,

McGinnis,

Jones

et al. 2024

“…CORD’s HOP program provides a progressive set of learning activities over a period of three days. Scientists agree that even short sessions can have a significant impact on students’ motivation, as long as the sessions have active engagement (Roden et al, 2018). Many of the outreach activities take place at locations such as universities, in labs other than schools.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing 8th Grade Students to Excel in Physical Science: HandsOn Physics (HOP)!

Dizbay-Onat¹,

Wyss

2018

This study describes a program that the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) carried out in partnership with Birmingham City Schools (BCS) to test an educational intervention, i.e., Hands-On Physics (HOP), among 8th grade students in predominantly minority schools. It also evaluated teachers’ demographics and educational backgrounds. The students conducted four physics experiments during a three day period. They performed better on post-tests. The actual and the percent gains in knowledge for each school were essentially equal for the schools that had passing versus failing grades in annual state assessment (20.4±5.6/49.0±5.6%, 20.4±2.7/48.4±8.3%, respectively). Most students (53%) stated that they were comfortable with science, 88% indicated that they were planning to enter higher education, and 86% agreed that higher education was very important for their future. The students’ major perceived obstacles to higher education were education cost and low grades. The teachers were primarily between 40–59 years old (60%), female (80%) and African-American (93%), and 87% majored in biology (93%). Forty percent had a bachelor’s degree and 60% had a master’s degree. They reported that they needed more support teaching physics and reported that a lack of materials and time were the main obstacles to provide the highest quality science educational experiences.

“…The laboratory activities were part of a comprehensive curriculum module that included two pre-lab videos: a ten-minute animated video that introduced the activities the students would do onboard the mobile lab and the key vocabulary terms and a three-minute video on laboratory safety. The SAL curriculum modules were optimized for delivery on mobile labs (Roden et al, 2018) and were designed to be taught in 70 minutes. Careers in science, healthcare, and other STEM fields were highlighted throughout both modules.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mobile labs are being increasingly used as a valuable tool to supplement traditional classroom science lessons and increase equity of access to authentic laboratory experiences and equipment. Mobile labs offer a number of benefits by providing outreach across a large geographic area, limiting the burden on school resources, allowing students to use authen-tic laboratory and medical equipment, and giving students the opportunity to interact with scientists (Bonetta, 2007;Franzblau et al, 2011;Jones and Stapleton, 2017;Reid, 2001;Roden et al, 2018).…”

Section: Department Of Education 2016)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Imapacts of Hands-On Science Curriculum for Elementary School Students and Families Delivered on a Mobile Laboratory

Jones¹,

Chang²,

Carter³

et al. 2019

Self Cite

High-quality, hands-on science education is lacking in many low-resource schools. Seattle Children's Research Institute launched a mobile science lab program in 2009 to support the efforts of schools in Washington state by providing access to engaging hands-on science activities and opportunities to interact with scientists. For this study, we provided intensive science enrichment to students in grade four and their families with the goals of improving knowledge of key topics in the life sciences, increasing engagement in learning science, and encouraging student interest in a career in STEM. Four new activities were created for this project, two of which included family participation. Students at ten Title I-eligible schools completed two new curriculum modules on the mobile lab, and students and family members attended a science night at the school and a field trip to Seattle Children's Research Institute. Students who participated in the project demonstrated statistically significant gains in knowledge of the topics addressed by the activities and in the ability to recognize typical STEM careers and tasks associated with those careers, which persisted into grade five. The family events were well attended with family members reporting increased confidence in talking with their child about STEM.