2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A new program, The Mind Fitness Program©, has been created to prepare the participants for STEM careers by stimulating their spatial skills, 3D visualization, analytical abilities, pattern recognition skills, memory, attention to detail, and general mental performance of participants.
The initial stages of the program were developed for the Engineering Program at San Antonio College in San Antonio and have been presented in two previous ASEE papers. Since last year, the program has been extended and successfully tested during the Final Year of the Lunar Caves Analog Test Sites Program (LCATS) offered by the WEX Foundation and presently is implemented at the DoSeum here in San Antonio. It has been presented at Alamo STEM Ecosystem Educator Conference and several schools from our area are considering implementing it as an after-school optional program.
It uses a variety of exercises designed to challenge specific areas of the brain, just as physical exercises affect various muscle groups. The exercises are disguised as games since one of the most recent trends in education is the ”edutainment” concept. It combines educational content with entertaining activities so, the participants learn while having fun.
The program is extremely flexible and can be adapted to various locations, number of participants, or time intervals, and applies to all age brackets with educational or medical applications. It is designed to be offered in several stages, from the easy to the more complex type of challenges, and each stage may be expanded or reduced as needed.
The paper will present the program, the results, and the plans for future expansion of the program to reach a broader range of participants.