Impacts of industry employee volunteering in K-12 classrooms

Abstract

Engineering education has the potential to improve K-12 students' problem-solving and critical thinking skills while motivating them to learn science and math. However, for teachers to effectively implement hands-on engineering activities in the classroom, they may need additional adult support for curriculum content, classroom management, and technical support. Initial research findings in this area indicate that programs providing this support may not only impact K-12 students, but may also benefit the classroom volunteers. This paper presents an exploratory research study involving one such program run by National Instruments with a network of local schools. This program has placed nearly 250 employee volunteers in K-12 classrooms in Central Texas as support for classroom teachers. The "classroom mentors," the majority of who are engineers, help teachers bring hands-on engineering design activities into the classroom that focus on developing math, science, technology, and engineering skills. The goal of this research is to produce a descriptive picture of the perceived outcomes of the program from the perspectives of those closely involved -the classroom mentors and the teachers. Surveys were developed for both of the groups and taken by 37 classroom mentors and 21 teachers. The responses were analyzed in order to evaluate the impacts made by the program and how these impacts are perceived across and amongst groups. The research aims to understand not only the effect on students and schools but also how the program has affected conceptual and attitudinal change in the classroom mentors and the company as a whole. The results indicate benefits and pitfalls of the program, allowing for program improvement and recommendations for establishing a similar program. This research identifies the key relationships and program impacts that will guide the direction for future investigation. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2006.