2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

It is widely recognized that there is a need for a diverse workforce of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals, leaders, and innovators to co-create successful solutions for global problems. The inclusion of art into STEM activities (making STEAM the new acronym) has the potential to encourage a more diverse population of learners to become engaged in this workforce. While these needs are great, there is not widespread access to STEAM activities; teachers in many districts face multiple constraints in developing new rigorous activities. Partnerships between K-12 and universities can ease this burden through service learning (S-L).

At an urban elementary school in the northeast, an afterschool STEAM club has been partnering with a S-L engineering course from a local university to develop and facilitate activities. We call this partnership STEAM x S-L. This partnership seeks to be mutually beneficial and work towards a common goal developed by the community partner and university, to achieve a transformative relationship. Our partnership specifically focuses on engaging and growing K-12 STEAM education in a manner that does not place the burden solely on K-12 teachers.

Utilizing a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach, the school and university teams created numerous collaborative activities for upper elementary-aged students. The process of improving activities occurred through iterative interviews, student work samples, and feedback from the K-12 students and undergraduate team leaders. The results from this iterative process were then used to develop an initial framework for what makes successful activities for the STEAM x S-L partnership. The framework was then mapped to current literature around developmentally appropriate teaching practices, STEAM, and S-L and further refined through comparison to student feedback on various activities.

This framework has implications for both researchers studying S-L and STEAM education and also practitioners seeking to set up their programs for success. While elementary teachers are overworked and over-asked, developing S-L relationships with local university programs can be one solution to addressing STEAM workforce development at both K-12 and university levels.