2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: Broadening Participation in Engineering with the STEM Excellence in Engineering Equity (SEEE) Project

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 10: Broadening Participation in P12

While rural students are now graduating from high school at rates comparable to their urban and suburban peers, they continue to fall behind in pursuing postsecondary education, including engineering courses and programs. Funding from the National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) program (EEC #2135080) allowed for the development and design of an innovative project intended to improve the recruitment and retention of secondary students from underrepresented groups to college engineering programs.

In 2022, the STEM Excellence in Engineering Equity (SEEE) project launched with partners including the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh, the STEM Equity Initiative (SEI - a nonprofit), and RTI International (the research partner). Together Pitt and SEI designed and developed a secondary professional development (PD) program to guide educators in integrating (1) high-quality, evidence-based engineering content, (2) effective pedagogical practice, and (3) innovative, indicators of educational equity.

In August 2022, the SEEE program delivered elements of the high school engineering curriculum (INSPIRES – INcreasing Student Participation, Interest & Recruitment in Engineering and Science) to 14 STEM teachers from rural schools with research-based and practitioner-tested equity content. Following the PD, the teachers are implementing their practices while meeting five times through zoom in Faculty learning communities. The data collected from the program will assess educators’ ability to create Equitable Learning Environments (ELE) that better serve all students to improve their access, interest, and ability to enter engineering courses and programs. The equity constructs developed by SEI provided criteria and indicators that could be tailored and prioritized to address the root causes impacting underrepresented (UR) populations in rural schools, The content developed for teacher professional development has application in high school science, technology engineering or math (STEM) classrooms, as well as Career and Technology Education classrooms (a common career pathway for many students in rural communities).

Working with an advisory board of experts in rural and engineering education and industry, the research design will examine (1) implementation usability and feasibility and (2) SEEE’s potential to influence the capacity of educators to build and sustain ELEs to improve rural students’ engagement and interest in engineering. This paper will feature a summary of the Professional Development program, summary of the data collected, and lessons learned from this innovative approach to equity in engineering education.

Authors

Taryn Melkus Bayles University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Taryn Melkus Bayles is a Professor, Teaching Track, in the Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department at the
University of Pittsburgh, and serves as the Vice Chair of Undergraduate Education. She has spent part of her career
working in industry with Exxon, Westinghouse, Phillips Petroleum and Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (now
NETL). Her industrial experience has included process engineering, computer modeling and control, process design and
testing, and engineering management. She has also spent 25 years teaching Chemical Engineering at the University of
Nevada Reno, University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland Baltimore
County. Her current research focuses on Engineering Education and Outreach. The goal of this research is to increase
awareness of and interest in pursuing engineering as a career, as well as to understand what factors help students be
successful once they have chosen engineering as a major.
Ms. Claudia J. Morrell [biography]

Morrell’s decades of work have focused on understanding and enacting research-based strategies to increase access and educational equity for students traditionally underrepresented in rigorous courses and programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She knows that an education in a STEM field, including Career and Technical Education (CTE), leads students to life enriching, family supporting, and community building careers. Morrell has expertise working in and with secondary education, community colleges, research universities, businesses, and nonprofits.

Morrell’s goal is to work collaboratively with educators and stakeholders within schools and colleges to provide the knowledge, skills, abilities, and tools needed to create and sustain equitable learning environments in classrooms. Her work developing, funding, directing, managing, and directly implementing efforts from 2001 – 2024 has shaped her unique understanding of the challenges of practitioners related to the broadening of participation and completion of underrepresented students in STEM. The new systemic education change model introduces the core indicators of an equitable learning environment (ELE) that addresses the missing variable in the traditional education equation: Affective Learning. Over forty researchers and practitioners have called it a “game changer” in addressing equity for all in classrooms and schools.

In partnership with Dr. Taryn Bayles, (University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering), Morrell recently completed a design and development grant funded by the National Science Foundation (EEC-BPE 2135080). The grant further designed, developed, assessed and validated the innovative approach to support teachers’ efforts to encourage all students to embrace learning in engineering and other STEM courses and programs. ELEs measurably improve social and academic outcomes for underrepresented students and all students. Additionally, teachers using the model have reported enjoying teaching again.

Morrell is a both a practitioner and researcher with a B.S. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.A. from Loyola University Maryland.
Sandra Staklis
Kevin A Jordan [biography]

Kevin Jordan is a research education analyst in RTI International’s Education Practice Area. He has over a decade of experience in education evaluation, research, and technical assistance with projects focusing on education policy, career technical education (CTE), and STEM.

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