It Takes a Village to Raise an Engineer
Abstract
"We present survey results from grade 3-5 students, focused on student understanding of engineering. The work, supported by a National Science Foundation Math Science Partnership between a large, research-focused university and a high need, urban school system, focuses on bringing the work of engineers to the world of inner city elementary students through an engineering focused in-school curriculum, and an out of school-time experience, supported by community partnerships and guided by engineering mentors. One year of student survey data compared to quasi-experimental control groups are discussed. Comparisons of student responses revealed that after one year of the program, students in in the program were able to articulate with greater accuracy what the discipline of engineering is and what engineers do than in the year previous and also in relation to comparable students who had not yet been exposed to the program. These findings have potential positive implications for the impact of community-based partnerships on students understandings of engineering."See Related Video: http://stemforall2016.videohall.com/p/641