This study explored the interest, outcome expectations, choice goals and choice actions in engineering and technology, collaboration value, problem solving attitudes, and spatial reasoning and orientation skills of 63 middle school females in grades six, seven, and eight. The participants were involved in a five full-day coding robotics summer…

This study aimed to determine the effects of STEM Activities in Nature on students' environmental attitudes, STEM career interests, and engineering perceptions. In the research, the qualitative method is embedded in the quantitative method in an embedded mixed design. The quantitative dimension of the research was based on a quasi-experimental…

Scholars report that the students' interest in STEM declines and suggest to approach them earlier. This case study with the convenient sample of seven primary school students investigates the students' view of science and scientists and examine the following research questions in the Dutch lower secondary school context: (1) What are young…

Understanding motivational beliefs such as expectancy and value that shape students' persistence and decision to pursue a STEM career, obtaining valid and reliable measures for these dimensions, and developing strategies using this data are critically important to ensure students' persistence in the STEM pipeline. Therefore, this study aims to…

This paper presents findings of an investigation on students' attitudes towards coding and its relationship with interest in STEM-related careers. A concurrent mixed-method research design involving a pre-intervention-intervention-post-intervention non-equivalent control group was adopted. A sample of 50 grade seven to nine South African students…

Gendered barriers in education and attrition along the academic and professional pipeline are key determinants of the current STEM skills shortage. While enrolment in STEM undergraduate courses has been increasing in the recent decades, STEM degree choices still suffer from considerable gender imbalance, whereby women are underrepresented in…

Gaps in STEM performance have narrowed over the last 50 years (Leaper et al., 2012; National Science Foundation, 2013). Nonetheless, disparities remain in many STEM fields -- with the largest occurring in the physical sciences, computer science, and engineering (UNESCO, 2012). Although gender gaps in science and math performance have been closing,…

Gender stereotypes about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are salient for children and adolescents and contribute to achievement-related disparities and inequalities in STEM participation. However, few studies have used a longitudinal design to examine changes in gender stereotypes across a range of STEM fields. In a large,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between grit, mathematics self-efficacy, students' career interest in STEM, and student achievement in Algebra I. The study was intentional in examining the concepts of self-efficacy, achievement, and career interest as part of STEM education research. The research was completed during the…

Student giftedness is a complex, developmentally dynamic and contextual phenomenon that teachers confront every day. In the classroom, teachers often meet students who have exceptional potential or achieve very high learning goals. The aim of this study is to illustrate the evaluation of inquiry-based learning activities in a specific context…

Students' lack of motivation in learning school science has been recognized as a problem, due to its negative impact on students´ STEM-related career choices. For supporting students´ motivation to study science, the use of an introduction which sets the scene, sometimes called a scenario, has been recommended. Although scenarios, which introduce…

Informal STEM education programs have become venues wherein girls can improve their sense of belonging and potential success (STEM identity) through interactions with role models and seeing how STEM fields are relevant to them. Despite decades of advocacy for single-sex programs' role in improving girls' STEM identity, few studies have found…