Supporting Young Women to Enter Engineering: Long-Term Effects of a Middle School Engineering Outreach Program for Girls

Demetry, Chrysanthe; Hubelbank, Jeanne H.; Blaisdell, Stephanie; Sontgerath, Suzanne; Nicholson, Michelle; Rosenthal, Elissa; Quinn, Paula

doi:10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v15.i2.20

Cited by 28 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Among middle school programs that have tracked long-term effects, some found that interest in STEM eroded (VanLeuvan, 2004;Jayaratne, Thomas, & Trautmann, 2003). Others found lasting positive outcomes that didn't always reach the point of statistical significance (Demetry, Hubelbank, Blaisdell, Sontgerath, Nicholson, Rosenthal & Quinn, 2009;Tomhave, 1990;Virnoche & Eschenbach, 2007;Virnoche, 2008). Other studies that have suggested long-term effects have methodological limitations, most commonly the failure to control for self-selection or other biases.…”

Section: Middle School Outreach As a Recruitment Strategy: Implicatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous publications describe the program design features and rationale in detail (Demetry et al, 2009;Demetry & Sontgerath, 2013). Key programmatic elements include:…”

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous longitudinal studies, we investigated outcomes such as STEM-related course-taking in high school, STEM-related self-efficacies, knowledge of and attitudes about engineering, and choice of college major (Demetry et al, 2009;Demetry & Sontgerath, 2013). Camp Reach alumnae and girls in the Control group were interviewed by telephone six years or more after they applied to Camp Reach as sixth graders, with response rates between 40-70%.…”

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the first five years of the program (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001), 18% of Reach Full study participants declared engineering majors in college, compared with 3% in the Control group (Demetry et al, 2009). Expanding to include majors in the sciences and science-based professions (e.g., nursing), 47% of the Reach Full group was pursuing those pathways, compared to 29% of the Control group.…”

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Expanding to include majors in the sciences and science-based professions (e.g., nursing), 47% of the Reach Full group was pursuing those pathways, compared to 29% of the Control group. Alumnae in the Reach Partial group had chosen STEM majors at the similar, lower level of the Control group (Demetry et al, 2009). …”

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A middle school engineering outreach program for girls yields STEM undergraduates

Demetry

Sontgerath

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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, use of educational technology, K-12 engineering outreach, and intercultural learning in experiential education abroad. As director of the Morgan Center at WPI since 2006, Demetry coordinates programs and services fostering excellence and innovation in teaching at WPI and supports course-based and program-level assessment of student learning outcomes. Many engineering units within universities continue to work toward gender parity among their undergraduates. One strategy is to offer STEM enrichment programs for young women. Experts agree that middle school is an optimal time for intervention, and numerous studies show that middle school outreach programs for girls can enhance interest in STEM. Some universities, however, may be hesitant to invest in middle school programming without evidence of long-term impact. This study shows that rising 7 th grade girls who participated in a two-week residential engineering enrichment program at a STEM-intensive university later applied as undergraduates, were admitted, and enrolled at higher rates than a control group. The experimental design of this study is relatively unusual for middle school enrichment programs and eliminates potential bias due to self-selection or a competitive application process. Ms IntroductionThe question of diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics has been a topic of research for close to half a century. In spite of numerous efforts to diversify STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and definite progress in some disciplines, we still have a long way to go to reach gender parity, especially in engineering. In 1998, the percentage of first year college women who entered engineering was 2.7%. In 2014, that number was 5.8% of all first year women (National Science Board, 2016).While this represents a 100% increase in the representation of women among first year engineering students, it pales in comparison to overall representation of women students in four year institutions, which reached 57% in 2014. Clearly, work to increase gender diversity in engineering must continue (Pryor, Hurtado, Saenz, Santos & Korn 2007; National Research Council, 2006).The paucity of women in engineering is particularly evident at technical institutions where most students major in a STEM discipline. As such, these institutions face a significant gender disparity in their student populations. For example, at the university where this research was conducted, approximately 96% of undergraduates are working toward degrees in engineering, the natural sciences, mathematics, or computer science. Thirty-three percent of the student body is female. These data are typical for most of our peer technological institutions with similar offerings and is consistent with national data which indicate that 25.8% of first year women intend on majoring in STEM disciplines, with a breakdown as follows: biological/agricultural sciences (15.8%), mathematics and computer science (2.1%), physical sciences (2.1%), and engineering (5.8%) (National Science Boar...

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Section: Middle School Outreach As a Recruitment Strategy: Implicatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous publications describe the program design features and rationale in detail (Demetry et al, 2009;Demetry & Sontgerath, 2013). Key programmatic elements include:…”

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background About Camp Reachmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A middle school engineering outreach program for girls yields STEM undergraduates

Demetry

Sontgerath

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

Self Cite

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The Single Sex Debate for Girls in Science: a Comparison Between Two Informal Science Programs on Middle School Students’ STEM Identity Formation

Hughes

Nzekwe

Molyneaux³

2013

Res Sci Educ

116

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Addressing the STEM Gender Gap by Designing and Implementing an Educational Outreach Chemistry Camp for Middle School Girls

et al. 2015

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There continues to be a persistent, widespread gender gap in multiple STEM disciplines at all educational and professional levels: from the self-reported interest of pre-school aged students in scientific exploration, to the percentages of tenured faculty in these 10 disciplines, more men than women express an interest in science, a confidence in their scientific abilities, and ultimately more men than women decide to pursue scientific careers. Reported herein is an intensive outreach effort focused on addressing this

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Supporting Young Women to Enter Engineering: Long-Term Effects of a Middle School Engineering Outreach Program for Girls

Cited by 28 publications

References 25 publications

A middle school engineering outreach program for girls yields STEM undergraduates

A middle school engineering outreach program for girls yields STEM undergraduates

The Single Sex Debate for Girls in Science: a Comparison Between Two Informal Science Programs on Middle School Students’ STEM Identity Formation

Addressing the STEM Gender Gap by Designing and Implementing an Educational Outreach Chemistry Camp for Middle School Girls

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