2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Although research shows that culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, and culturally sustaining pedagogy are effective strategies for increasing African American interest, knowledge and engagement in STEM, some researchers argue these approaches fall short in addressing the holistic development needs of African American students and their communities. Recently, the African-Centered STEM Education model was proposed as a reliable and effective educational framework to support African American interest, confidence, knowledge and engagement in STEM while tackling systemic racism in STEM education, such as biased curriculum and assessment practices, limited access to resources and underrepresentation of African American educators. This work utilized the African-Centered STEM Education model to inspire African American participation in STEM, particularly in engineering fields like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Published results showed that the model increased students’ confidence, perceived ability, interest, and intent to pursue further STEM learning. However, the question remained whether the model effectively supported student learning and comprehension of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning concepts.

For three consecutive summers since 2022, the founders of Uhuru Academy and Conscious Ingenuity implemented the Uhuru Academy Conscious Ingenuity (UACI) Summer STEM Camp, which employs the African-Centered STEM Education model to instruct African American students. The camp aimed to increase student interest, confidence, and knowledge in STEM, introduce the fundamentals of coding, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, affirm students' cultural identity while fostering a STEM identity, highlight the contributions of people of African descent to STEM, and motivate students to use STEM knowledge to enhance life for their families and communities. This initiative targeted African American students across the United States. A total of 13 students participated in 2022, 22 students in 2023, and 26 students in 2024. Each summer, participants completed pre- and post-program surveys to assess the impact of the African-Centered STEM Education model, consistently reporting increased interest, confidence, and knowledge in STEM.

In the summer of 2024, participants also took pre- and post-tests on African STEM history, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, along with the usual attitude surveys. The goal was to determine if the African-Centered STEM Education model increased students' interest and confidence in these fields while supporting their learning. Additionally, the study sought to evaluate whether students' self-reported increases in knowledge correlated with actual gains, as measured by their pre- and post-test scores. This paper discusses the African-Centered STEM Education model, describes the UACI Summer STEM Camp, and details the model's impact on the camp participants' interest, confidence and learning.