Embedding teacher professional learning into the student-focused gear up engineering summer camp (evaluation)

Abstract

The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant, from the Department of Education, addresses the need for more students in STEM disciplines by focusing on increasing student interest in STEM fields. As a part of the Science, Technology, Arithmetic, Reading Students (STARS!) project, students and teachers from school districts throughout the mountain west region, participated in the GEAR UP Engineering Summer Camp 2019 at a university in the mountain west region. The engineering camp targeted 6th to 12th grade underrepresented students and STEM teachers from the participating schools. During the 2019 camp, students and teachers worked in teams to perform real-world engineering research investigations in collaboration with engineering research faculty at a university in the mountain west region. The camp focused on the interaction of urban and natural areas, and their effect on water quality and air quality in the local environment. Although the main purpose of the camp was to increase interest in and knowledge about engineering in middle-school and high school students in the mountain west region, the camp provided an opportunity to work with the participating teachers and develop their understanding of the recently approved Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards for K-12 and the Framework for K-12 Science Education. Teachers are facing challenges in incorporating these standards in their curriculum. Rather than have the teachers serve only as chaperones for the students, this years' camp served as a professional learning experience for the seven participating STEM teachers. Throughout the camp, the STEM teachers participated in authentic engineering experiences with their students and engaged in professional learning discourse about three-dimensional science instruction and the camp experience. They also participated in engineering education workshops led by the researchers, which included discussion about the SEEd Standards and the Framework, engineering design activities, and collaborative work sessions to plan a lesson related to engineering implementation in their own classroom. The main purpose of the teacher professional learning was to help the participating STEM teachers incorporate the recommendations from the framework for K-12 science education and the SEEd Standards. During the academic year following the camp, the researchers observed the participating teachers in their own classrooms teaching the lesson plans that they created during the camp. The researchers also conducted two semi-structured interviews with the teachers, one at the end of the camp which focused on the teachers experiences at the GEAR UP Engineering Camp and the second in their own classrooms immediately following the observed lesson which focused on the implementation of what they had learned in the professional learning experience. The qualitative data obtained from the observations and the interviews allow the researchers to evaluate the combination of a teacher professional learning experience with a student-focused engineering summer camp. The data also determines if the professional learning experience helped the teachers to better implement the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the SEEd Standards in their own STEM classes.