Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publication Title

Technology Interface International Journal

Volume

17

Issue

2

Pages

75-82

Abstract

Four-year universities and community colleges rely on outreach efforts to bring the awareness of STEM-related careers to students, who might be interested in joining their student body in the future. These events are of utmost importance for students, who do not have all of the necessary role models to engage them in conversation about their future careers. Some students might not perceive a STEM career as valuable and feasible in their future career paths, even if their own schools offer information and resources related to STEM career pathways. Hence, various outreach efforts at different levels of education have to be integrated to make sure that students learn about engineering careers early enough for them to consider this choice and adjust their high school curricula to align with their future careers. In this paper, the authors present four outreach efforts to four levels of K-12 education: pre-school, elementary school, middle school, and high school. The activities used to implement these outreach events are also discussed. Activities related to robotics, for example, have the advantage of engaging young students and, at the same time, offer the opportunity to discuss different engineering branches, such as electrical or mechanical engineering, electronics, wireless devices, or underwater robots. Location of the outreach event is also important, since STEM information needs to reach both students and their families. As such, the authors discuss the placement of the STEM events in schools, in the community, or in job-related places such as a Navy base.

Rights

© 2017 Technology Interface International Journal. All Rights reserved.

Included with the kind written permission of the copyright holder.

Original Publication Citation

Popescu, O., Jovanovic, V. M., Michaeli, J. G., Ringleb, S., & Verma, A. (2017). STEM outreach efforts for urban students. Technology Interface International Journal, 17(2), 75-82.

ORCID

0000-0002-8626-903X (Jovanovic), 0000-0003-3376-0252 (Ringleb),

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