Early exposure to engineering and mathematics career opportunities has been indicated to influence students’ decisions regarding their academic majors and career goals. This study utilized mixed methods to analyze how changes in middle school students’ affective characteristics might be linked to their future career decision-making after participating in an integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics summer camp. As part of the summer camp, rising sixth through eighth grade students attended a week-long learning experience based on a specific engineering context. Each grade level cohort participated with their same grade peers in a 36-hour, 6-day event focused on sparking their interest in engineering careers and on developing their content knowledge in select grade-appropriate science and mathematics content areas. Pre-post testing was conducted with sixty-five students of diverse backgrounds in grades six through eight to measure their self-reported engineering-related self-efficacy, knowledge of engineering careers, and motivation to pursue future engineering classes and careers. In addition, interviews were conducted to examine any changes in middle school camp participants’ affective characteristics of motivation, self-efficacy, and self-determination.
Araceli Martinez Ortiz, PhD., is Research Associate Professor of Engineering Education in the College of Education at Texas State University. She leads a comprehensive research agenda related to issues of curriculum and instruction in engineering education, motivation and preparation of under served populations of students and teachers and in assessing the impact of operationalizing culturally responsive teaching in the STEM classroom. As executive director of the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research, she collaborates on various state and national STEM education programs and is PI on major grant initiatives through NASA MUREP and NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education and NSF DUE . Araceli holds Engineering degrees from The University of Michigan and Kettering University. She holds a Masters degree in Education from Michigan State and a PhD in Engineering Education from Tufts University.
Dr. Hiroko Kawaguchi Warshauer received her Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. Her research interests include areas of teaching and learning that foster productive struggle and investigation of professional teacher noticing of student thinking at pre-service and in-service levels. She is co-author of the Math Exploration curriculum, a Texas Mathworks middle school textbook series state adopted in Texas and the Mathworks Junior Summer Math Camp curriculum. She provides professional development to support curriculum implementation. She is the Mathworks research coordinator, overseeing Mathworks related research about summer math camps, teacher training, curriculum, and classroom interactions with faculty and doctoral students in mathematics and mathematics education.
Mrs. Sara Garcia-Torres is a PhD student at Texas State University and currently serves as a researcher for the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research. She supports NASA grant funded programs. She worked for public schools for the past 16 years as a bilingual and inclusion teacher, Gifted & Talented Facilitator, and as a STEM teacher. She works with educators, families, and community members to support STEM efforts in public schools, homes, and communities. Her research interests include STEM education, both the delivery to underrepresented students and the preparation of public school teachers.
Holds degrees from Texas State University (M.Ed.), and University of Texas at San Antonio (BA).
Erin Scanlon is an adjunct professor in the physics department at Texas Lutheran University as well as a doctoral student in developmental education at Texas State University. Her research focuses on curriculum and program evaluation as well as on STEM students' personal epistemologies.
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