<p>Despite generous funding, the current data shows slow-moving demographical
changes in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, and little
to no slowing in the decline of STEM-associated career interests in underserved
communities (Leeker, Maxey, Cardella & Hynes, 2019). While a considerable
amount has been written about the evaluation of formal pre-college STEM
programs, little research has been carried out regarding the success of informal
programs to encourage interest in STEM-related careers and develop skills
needed to succeed in such environments. </p>
<p>A common method of education for elementary school students is to use
informal programs, usually with the help of professional mentors. To better
understand such programs, the qualitative research that formulates this
dissertation is a collective case study of after-school elementary robotics
programs in Indiana, the United States, which successfully implemented the
State Robotics Initiative (SRI) to provide hands-on STEM learning
opportunities. This program relies on mentor expertise for after-school program
instruction.<a> The purpose of this study is to investigate
mentor involvement in informal STEM programs, including to answer the following
research question: How do mentors impact student participants’ advancement of
specific engineering skills, including problem-solving, critical thinking,
teamwork, and communication?</a></p>
<p>In this case study, the researcher collected documents, observed activities
involving mentors and students, and interviewed mentors and students to
determine how mentor involvement impacts students who participate in informal
STEM programs. The researcher then conducted a holistic analysis of the data. To
understand how knowledge of STEM skills gained from mentors impacts students,
the researcher focused on a coding scheme to correspond with a framework developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21). </p>
<p><a>Themes, the outcome of coding, were developed by “layering the analysis”
(Creswell & Poth, 2017), first by showing unique situations of each
participant, followed by grouping by the program of these unique situations into
comprehensive groupings. This resulted in three separate cases covering
multiple participants that serve as examples of mentor impact of specific STEM
skills learned by students in three robotics programs. </a></p>
<p>While the results were
not analyzed across cases, all programs sought to increase knowledge with
students even though each program had a different background and reason for
starting the robotics program. In addition, each program had very different
demographics and cultural styles, but all showed the integration of STEM and
robotics in an afterschool program, with emphasis on problem-solving. This dissertation
includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and a
discussion. Recommendations for educators and future researchers are also
presented in a final chapter. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12237125 |
| Date | 04 May 2020 |
| Creators | Jessica D Leeker (8793968) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/BUT_IS_IT_WORKING_MENTOR_INVOLVEMENT_IN_INFORMAL_ELEMENTARY_STEM_PROGRAMS_A_COLLECTIVE_CASE_STUDY/12237125 |
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