An Online STEM Program for Gifted Students of Color Amidst COVID-19

Abstract

There is a need to expand the pool of talented science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals who come from underrepresented backgrounds. The W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars Institute's Accelerated Learning Academy (ALA), which operated as a three-weekend online STEM program in 2021, provided high-achieving tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders from underserved communities the opportunity to participate in interactive online STEM workshops within one of four ALA STEM tracks: Applied Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Technology, Medical Science or Biomedical Engineering and Technology. The weekend workshops consisted of STEM guest presentations, a combination of lecture and interactive group activities for practical application, and "New Thinking'' workshops to foster collaboration in exploring methods to address contemporary STEM issues. In this paper, I describe attributes of the ALA program that was configured for the online environment and the survey