"STEM academies" and their effect on student perceptions of engineering

For the past 3 years, engineering students from Ohio Northern University have spent a full day running STEM activities with 4th-6th graders at a public middle school, which has been called a STEM Academy by the organizers and participants. The academy begins with a guest speaker who gives a presentation on a topic under the STEM umbrella, then students participate in multiple activities that typically involve science or engineering. While these academies had been received positively by the faculty, the effectiveness of communicating engineering to the students was uncertain. Is one day of activities truly enough to clear misconceptions of engineering? A post survey was administered where students were asked questions in a similar fashion to the "Draw an Engineer Test." The sample was composed of 6th grade students (N=60) at a small public middle school. The 6th grade students were selected in particular by the investigator in order to draw comparisons to a similar outreach previously done at another school. Responses from the survey provided a degree of insight as to how effective a STEM Academy is at informing students about engineering with its current model. Common misconceptions arose frequently in addition to common trends. The misunderstandings surprisingly manifested as the resistance of students to explore a new field by not deviating from their idealized profession. Also, students were drawn to engineering based on misinformed preconceptions. Suggestions based on this study can lead to improvements in how such an outreach is conducted to properly introduce students to STEM, particularly engineering. This paper will present the results of the first survey and provide discussion on student responses. Comparisons between other outreaches will be made to establish the nature of a STEM Academy in contrast to other K-12 programs designed to promote student interest in science and engineering. Suggestions to improve the effectiveness of STEM academies will be noted along with steps to meaningfully compare advancements in student perceptions for future efforts.

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