2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Student Interest in STEM Careers: An NSF ITEST Project for High Schoolers’ Renewable Energy Technology Engagement

This NSF ITEST project focuses on engaging students in four Chicago public high schools in an afterschool STEM program where they experience hands on activities with renewable energy technologies and related sustainability-tied experiences. Using a micro:bit and kit materials, students code, build, and investigate technologies to explore phenomena like air quality, and the modeling of technologies like electric cars and environmentally responsive homes. The communities in which the schools are set are Communities of Color that have historically been positioned in the public through a deficit lens but have rich cultural and economic assets. Between 10 and 20 students met weekly afterschool during the first year of implementation, which was preceded by a planning year in which teachers provided feedback on activities, and connections to the communities of the schools were developed. Four faculty were involved in the design of the project and activities, and a group of undergraduate STEM majors were also involved in the design and pilot of all activities. Four goals frame this project and research. These are to learn how (1) high school students’ knowledge of STEM careers and STEM domains change across their participation; (2) the high school students improve their interest in STEM career attainment and their self-efficacy for career relevant skills; (3) the undergraduate STEM majors’ views about Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers develop across their participation; and (4) teachers’ knowledge of current STEM domains, skills, and careers change.

To examine the impact of the programming on each stakeholder group, PEAR’s CIS-S and CIS-E surveys, interviews, activity surveys, and workshop surveys were used. Research across the first year of implementation revealed improvements in participating students’ interest in a career in STEM in their future, their curiosity about STEM domains (with the exception of mathematics), and their attitudes toward STEM (Goal 1). While students’ interest in STEM career attainment improved, their self-efficacy for career relevant skills were mixed. The trend is positive overall, but interestingly the 21st century skills tied to work with peers declined (Goal 2). Interviews and CIS-E data demonstrate undergraduate STEM majors’ persistence in valuing the opportunity for access to STEM among high school students. The interactions among the undergraduate students and high school students were specifically valued in influencing some shifts in their views. For example, undergraduate student workers described in interviews how their knowledge about the high school students based on their interactions was informing new ideas about how to better support students (Goal 3). Among the teachers leading the afterschool club, their comfort, confidence, and self-efficacy around STEM and leading STEM activities improved after implementing the first year of the club. Their interest in leading STEM remained constant (Goal 4). This paper and poster will describe the data that informed these findings, descriptions of the activities and stakeholders, and implications for the subsequent years of the program and plans for sustainability.