Foundations and Effectiveness of an Afterschool Engineering Program for Middle School Students

Foundations and Effectiveness of an Afterschool Engineering Program for Middle School Students AbstractCalls for improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education inthe United States are well-known and well-publicized. This attention has led to efforts tointroduce engineering in the K-12 grades. Several states have adopted or are consideringadopting standards for pre-college engineering, and a number of off-the-shelf curricula areavailable for teaching pre-college engineering, particularly at the high school level. While K-12schools are just beginning to offer courses in engineering, many more informal, afterschoolprograms that focus on engineering have been available for a number of years. However, theeffects of these afterschool programs are not as easily documented and are therefore not well-studied.In this paper, we describe a novel afterschool engineering program targeted for middle schoolgrades. The afterschool program builds on our many years of experience in conductingengineering-based professional development for K-12 teachers. The program is founded on athree-pronged approach of: 1) engaging students in inquiry-based learning opportunities thatencourage practice of key STEM concepts, development of analytical skills, and increasedawareness of STEM college and career pathways; 2) professional development and support forteachers to guide students in meaningful engineering design activities and targeted STEMcollege and career pathway investigation; and 3) informing parents and caregivers of the fullrange of STEM college and career pathway options so that they may support and encourage theirstudents’ pursuit of STEM-related educational and professional goals. The curriculum for theprogram features motivation of engineering concepts with readily-available technologyexamples, and team-based design projects with NAE 21st Century Grand Challenges themes.Professional development is integrated into our existing program of institutes, and we havecreated activity-based presentations for parents/caregivers to provide insight into the academicconsiderations for preparing their students for college and STEM careers.The evaluation strategy for our afterschool program includes student surveys administered in thefall and spring semesters (e.g., before and after the programs), as well as in-depth informationfrom focus groups. The findings from the initial evaluation indicate that students in the targetgrades throughout the school district exhibited an increasingly positive attitude towardengineering and science-related careers. Among participants in the afterschool program, thepercentage of students with positive attitudes toward careers in engineering increasedsignificantly from 45% to 71% from the fall to the spring. Likewise, teachers who participated inthe program noted positive changes in themselves that they translated into strategies for teachingin their classrooms.