National data shows that despite gains over the past twenty years, females remain underrepresented in the engineering workforce. Education's role in supporting the engineering pipeline cannot be ignored. Middle school teachers who lack integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) efficacy are less likely to engage students,…

Background: Promoting engagement and motivation in early engineering experiences is important for fostering interest and retention in engineering. One method that has been effective for doing so is facilitating transformative experiences (TEs), which occurs when students apply academic content to everyday experience. Our goal was to explore the…

Recent studies have identified that engaging middle school students (grades 6-8) in STEM activities increases their chances of choosing STEM-related disciplines when entering college; however, very few university-sponsored opportunities are available for these students. This paper describes an outreach day for middle school students consisting of…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" framework outlines scientific and engineering practices as a key element of student development. Educators are just beginning to discover effective and meaningful ways to teach science content to students with intellectual disability; however, the literature on teaching science practices is still…

In the United States, there has been an increased emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and especially engineering, in pre-college settings. There are several potential benefits of this, including: increasing the quantity and diversity of students who pursue STEM careers, improving all students' technological…

In 2010, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) founded the Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC). The Center supports Kuwait's Strategic Development Plan and the country's commitment to nurture gifted and talented youth. The Center also supports the work of talented adult inventors and entrepreneurs by…

This research aimed at preparing an out-of-school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education program for secondary school students and investigating the effects of the program on students' interest in STEM fields. As part of this investigation, this study sought the students' awareness of a career in these fields as well as…

Research suggests that, to narrow the gender gap in engineering, we should focus on helping young girls identify with engineering both because gendered attitudes emerge around kindergarten and because identity is more predictive than performance on persistence in the field. This qualitative study sought to understand the impact of collaborative…

This paper describes the design principles and implementation of a novel approach for a K--12 teacher professional development (PD) program. The approach integrates training focused on development of model eliciting activities (MEAs) within authentic engineering design tasks, collaborative 3D model design and fabrication, and inspirational site…

This article presents a large-scale evaluation study of over 3000 9-14-year-old students who participated in an engineering workshop during their school fieldtrips. Student perceptions right before and after, as well as two weeks after the workshop were captured and examined. Before the workshop, younger students and boys, generally exhibited…

Students' knowledge about a profession influences their future decisions about careers. Research indicates that students tend to hold stereotypical views of engineers, which would hinder engineering as a career choice. The purpose of this study was to measure how participating in a week long engineering summer camp affected middle school students'…

In addressing the nation's need for a more technologically-literate society, the Rutgers University Research Experience for Teachers in Engineering (RU RET-E) is designed to: (1) engage middle and high school math and science teachers in innovative "green" engineering research during the summer, and (2) support teachers in integrating…

To explore young adolescents' interest in engineering as a future career, we examined the influence of gender and grade level on participants' (N = 197, aged 10-13) views of engineering. One group (107 students) viewed a brief engineering video and wrote why they felt the same or different about engineering following the video. Qualitative…

The Urban Institute conducted an implementation and participant-outcomes evaluation of the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program (ANSEP). ANSEP is a multi-stage initiative designed to prepare and support Alaska Native students from middle school through graduate school to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)…

This Afterschool Alert Issue Brief explores how afterschool programs are offering innovative, hands-on computing and engineering education opportunities. Both these subjects have emerged as priority areas within the "STEM" fields. Computing is one of the fastest growing industries, and yet current rates of college graduation in computer…