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Stimulating K-12 Student Interest through Industry, Engineering College and K-12 School Partnerships

Industries that employ engineers have an interest in supporting the children of their communities through pipeline programs to encourage K-12 students to develop interest and excel in mathematics, science, technology, and engineering. This can be accomplished by supporting the efforts of local K-12 schools to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM fields. We have found that industry often has funding and a base of volunteers but may lack the knowledge, staff, and other means to effectively work with K-12 schools to accomplish these STEM education goals. This gap can be bridged through partnerships with engineering colleges at local institutions of higher education. The engineering college has the human resources and skills to support K-12 school STEM education programs. Thus, industry funding and interest in engagement can be channeled through the engineering college, which can provide needed support through K-12 school contact and oversight by engineering faculty, student and teacher mentoring through support by graduate students, and administration of funds. Thus the K-12 schools receive support and seed money to build a program that engages students in learning applications of science and mathematics as well as participating in competitions with students from other schools in a fun and stimulating environment. Without such support, these activities often would not take place. Results from the application of this model will be presented. A project was funded by the philanthropic foundation of a large corporation to provide services to K-12 schools in stimulating student interest in the STEM fields that the corporation wished to target. The engineering college and each local K-12 school district worked in partnership to determine the best way to utilize the funds for maximum benefit in STEM education for that district. This naturally varied between districts based on the size of the school and the interest of teachers. In this case, the bulk of the funding directly supported high schools and middle schools for participation in the two highly effective and well documented Science Olympiad and First Robotics competitions. A graduate student was provided to each school, with a stipend and tuition paid from a corporate foundation grant. A faculty member was tasked with maintaining contact with the schools to assess changing needs and to be a liaison between the engineering college, the schools, and the graduate students. Assessment of the effectiveness of the role of the college of engineering as a bridge between the corporate foundation and the K-12 schools was based on the impact observed on STEM programs in each of the K-12 districts. This was measured by the student STEM engagement activities that otherwise would not have occurred. As an example, over the 3 year term of the grant, one First Robotics team grew from 7 student participants to 27, including students from nearby schools and home-schooled students who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to be involved. Assessment of the effectiveness of Science Olympiad and First Robotics programs was deemed unnecessary as these programs have a long history of success and other comprehensive assessments have been made. This project can serve as a model for institutions who are interested in creating a pipeline program in partnership with their local industry and K-12 communities. The authors will share our experiences in balancing the interests and needs of the participating organizations.