2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engagement in Practice: Lessons Learned from Developing K-12 Programming in Naval Engineering

Presented at Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in STEM

The United States Navy has indicated that, to meet production goals for the next decade, the industrial base will need to hire approximately 15,000 workers annually through 2032, mostly in STEM fields. To address this demand, this paper details a Navy STEM workforce development coalition between two flagship state institutions aimed at establishing a comprehensive K-12 pathway. Engaging students early is paramount to ensuring a steady stream of STEM talent, necessitating robust and scalable K-12 lesson plans to teach engineering fundamentals in a way that engages and excites them about potential careers.
This paper outlines the four major forms of K-12 programming developed by the coalition: brief, expo-style lessons; one-off classroom visits; turnkey, deployable lessons with video components; and summer residential camps. These offerings build on each other to deliver a comprehensive naval engineering platform, allowing the coalition to meet students wherever they are and excite them about Navy STEM topics. Prioritizing scalability, each offering can be modified with minimal changes to content and consumables to cater to multiple age groups, ensuring delivery across broad geographic and age spectra.
With over 6,000 students engaged across these four touchpoints over three years, this paper presents both quantitative data from outreach metrics and lessons learned from curricula development for each program. Understanding how best to engage students in STEM education is crucial as the STEM workforce demand will only increase in the coming decades. The agile approach developed by this coalition offers a roadmap for other programs to deploy comprehensive offerings, meeting local workforce development goals quickly and at scale.

Authors

Mr. Alexander Grey University of Connecticut [biography]

Alexander Grey is a Naval Security Fellow with the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology and a PhD candidate within the Department of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. He has previously been the program manager of the UConn-URI Navy STEM Coalition and currently supports DPRM-MIB in workforce development efforts in the naval enterprise. He is an expert in workforce development and international security. He is also a contributor to the Lawfare imprint through the Brookings Institution.
Adeline Smith University of Connecticut
Miss Alexandra Hain University of Connecticut [biography]

Alexandra Hain is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Connecticut in structural engineering. She received her PhD in Structural Engineering in 2019 from the University of Connecticut. She has an interest in engineering education and serv
Jada-Lynn De Laia Vercosa-Bennett University of Connecticut
Dr. Stephany Santos University of Connecticut [biography]

Stephany Santos is faculty in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, with affiliate appointments in Engineering for Human Rights and Engineering Education. She is also the Executive Director and Endowed Chair of the Vergnano Institute for Inclusion in the UConn College of Engineering.
Dr. Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi The University of Rhode Island [biography]

Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. Her interests include lean manufacturing, healthcare, human factors and defense industries.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

« View session