TY - JOUR
T1 - Engineering projects in community service (Epics) in high schools
T2 - Subtle but potentially important student gains detected from human-centered curriculum design
AU - Ruth, Alissa
AU - Hackman, Joseph
AU - Slade, Alexandra
AU - Spence, Tameka
AU - Luchmun, Rachel
AU - Velez, Jennifer
AU - Ganesh, Tirupalavanam
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: Tirupalavanam G. Ganesh acknowledges this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1744539. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We thank Hope Parker for helping coordinate efforts as well as all the teachers and students who participated.
Funding Information:
Funding: This research has been supported by the Cisco corporate advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, grant number 2016-154100, Research Project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - A major goal in Engineering training in the U.S. is to continue to both grow and diversify the field. Project-and service-based forms of experiential, problem-based learning are often implemented with this as a goal, and Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) High is one of the more well-regarded and widely implemented. Yet, the evidence based on if and how participation in such programs shapes student intentions and commitment to STEM pathways is currently limited, most especially for pre-college programming. This study asks: How do high school students’ engineering mindsets and their views of engineering/engineers change as they participate in project–service learning (as implemented through an EPICS High curriculum)? This study employed a mixed method design, combining pre-and post-test survey data that were collected from 259 matched students (63% minority, 43% women) enrolling in EPICS High (total of 536 completed pre-tests, 375 completed post-tests) alongside systematic ethnographic analysis of participant observation data conducted in the same 13 socioeconomically diverse schools over a two-year period. Statistical analyses showed that participants score highly on engineering-related concepts and attitudes at both pre-and post-test. These did not change significantly as a result of participation. However, we detected nuanced but potentially important changes in student perspectives and meaning, such as shifting perceptions of engineering and gaining key transversal skills. The value of participation to participants was connected to changes in the meaning of commitments to pursue engineering/STEM.
AB - A major goal in Engineering training in the U.S. is to continue to both grow and diversify the field. Project-and service-based forms of experiential, problem-based learning are often implemented with this as a goal, and Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) High is one of the more well-regarded and widely implemented. Yet, the evidence based on if and how participation in such programs shapes student intentions and commitment to STEM pathways is currently limited, most especially for pre-college programming. This study asks: How do high school students’ engineering mindsets and their views of engineering/engineers change as they participate in project–service learning (as implemented through an EPICS High curriculum)? This study employed a mixed method design, combining pre-and post-test survey data that were collected from 259 matched students (63% minority, 43% women) enrolling in EPICS High (total of 536 completed pre-tests, 375 completed post-tests) alongside systematic ethnographic analysis of participant observation data conducted in the same 13 socioeconomically diverse schools over a two-year period. Statistical analyses showed that participants score highly on engineering-related concepts and attitudes at both pre-and post-test. These did not change significantly as a result of participation. However, we detected nuanced but potentially important changes in student perspectives and meaning, such as shifting perceptions of engineering and gaining key transversal skills. The value of participation to participants was connected to changes in the meaning of commitments to pursue engineering/STEM.
KW - Engineering curriculum
KW - High school
KW - Outcomes
KW - Project-based learning
KW - STEM
KW - Service-learning
KW - Underrepresented minorities
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U2 - 10.3390/educsci9010035
DO - 10.3390/educsci9010035
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063424721
SN - 2227-7102
VL - 9
JO - Education Sciences
JF - Education Sciences
IS - 1
M1 - 35
ER -