A student's first introduction to engineering and technology is typically through high school science labs. Unfortunately, in many high schools, science labs often make use of antiquated tools that fail to deliver exciting lab content. As a result, many students are turned off by science, fail to excel on standardized science exams, and do…

Brainstorming is a creativity technique in which a group of people (or an individual person) spontaneously generates a set of ideas to find the solution to a particular problem. This paper describes an innovative approach called "brainstorming with yo-yos," which was implemented in an outreach to high school event to increase high school…

The objective of this exploratory study was to describe patterns in self-regulated learning (SRL) for both high school students and college freshmen while engaged in a design activity. The main research question guiding this study was: How did high school and first-year college students self-regulate their approaches to learning when engaged in an…

Recent decline of students pursuing engineering degree programs is a great concern for many higher education authorities including Federal and State governments. Existing programs in high schools have not yet produced the desired results. Consequently, a number of initiatives to remedy this situation have been proposed and implemented. One such…

A two-week summer program designed to promote interest and learning in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields is documented. The program included a week-long engineering emphasis. Students and teachers from ten rural and financially disadvantaged school districts participated in the program. Three middle school and…

According to reports earlier this year, the National Science Foundation is cutting the Graduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fellows in K-12 Education Program, more commonly known as the GK-12 Program, or simply GK-12. GK-12 places graduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields directly into K-12…

Students at an all-girls high school who were enrolled in an introduction to engineering course were presented an engineering case study to determine if the case study affected their attitudes toward engineering and their abilities to solve engineering problems. A case study on power plants was implemented during a unit on electrical engineering.…

We describe the design and implementation of Project WISE, a multi-institutional partnership that assembles interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and high school students charged with developing STEM-focused community youth-programs. Our goal is twofold: (i.) to promote young women's interest in STEM-oriented careers through an early, positive…

SPIRIT is a three year project designed to increase high school students' interests in and their desire to pursue IT careers. This paper examines the results of the project during its second year of implementation. All student participants, and in particular female students, experienced a positive change in perception of gender stereotypes in IT…

A Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) summer Bridge Program was developed for high school students. The program was designed to encourage students to consider choosing an engineering major in college and to explore STEM as a future career. This was accomplished through a 10-week program involving multidisciplinary research activities.…

This paper gives an overview of a new pre-engineering program--Robotics Technician Curriculum--that uses robots to solicit underrepresented students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The curriculum uses a project-based learning environment, which consists of part lecture and part laboratory. This program…

In this article, the underlying logic of experimentation is exemplified within the context of a photoelectrical experiment for students taking a high school engineering, technology, or chemistry class. Students assume the role of photochemists as they plan, fabricate, and experiment with a solar cell made of copper and an aqueous solution of…

This study assesses the use of gaming to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in public education. The intent of the investigation was to identify attitudes about gaming and its use in education, as well as the need to utilize gaming as a platform to serve as an integrator of STEM subject matter. Participants included…