Model: Several guidelines and /or practices focus on increasing long-term participation by students from underrepresented groups in the STEM education pipeline
6.2 - Recognize Underrepresented Students
Encouraging long-term participation in STEM is a major focus of our STEM program plan. We have developed several interventions for students at our school to encourage retention for all students in the STEM pipeline. One way we do this is through our club days. Each grade level hosts club day every month. On club day, all students participate in a club for an hour during the school day. This ensures the opportunity to participate. Some of our clubs are focused specifically on underrepresented groups. Each grade level has a SciGirls club to encourage girls to pursue and gain interest in science.
As a summer opportunity, we have developed a two week long NASA Camp for students. We have grant funding for NASA camp so we can provide transportation and lunch for students at no cost to families. Students who sign up for NASA Camp are chosen by a weighted lottery that encourages participation by as many low socio-economic status, minorities, and girls as possible.
Another action step our STEM Coaches have taken on a county level is to provide STEM shadowing days for fifth grade students. Our 5th grade students took a field trip to JN Fries Magnet Middle in order to experience a day in the life of a STEM middle school student. During this trip, students completed a robotics lesson led by eighth grade students. They also participated in a science lesson with seventh grade and had lunch with the 6th grade students. This trip gave all of our students an opportunity to see themselves as a STEM student in middle school and has helped us improve retention in our pipeline.
Our district has put a great emphasis on the issue of pipeline retention in STEM and has acquired grant funds to provide transportation for students who would like to participate in STEM but need transportation. By providing transportation options, more students are able to stay in our pipeline and pursue a STEM education.
Each grade level has a SciGirls club. Girls find a topic they are interested in and their club leader designs activities and experiments that bring "girl stuff" and science together.
There are 97 girls involved in SciGirls Clubs at Patriots!
Kindergarten: The Science of Frozen
Kindergarten girls are studying the states of matter with Anna and Elsa.
First Grade: The Science of Rainbows and Light
These girls are learning all about rainbows and prisms.
Second Grade: The Science of Animation
After seeing this group of girls were interested in lots of different cartoons, the coach has them creating different types of animation including flip books, stop motion, and computer animation.
Third Grade: Green Science
Third grade girls were very interested in saving the environment. They are currently developing projects and school wide events to help raise awareness for things we can do to help make the world a better place to live.
Fourth Grade: Roller Coasters
This group of girls loves thrill rides and has been designing roller coasters and studying the different types of engineers that work on roller coaster design.
Fifth Grade: Duct Tape Fashion
These girls have style. They are designing and creating fashion completely out of duct tape. They will be doing an official fashion show at the 5th grade talent show in the spring.
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NASA Camp pictures: NASA Camp is a free program for STEM students. We provide free meals and snacks for students. The Camp is based on a weighted lottery for low income students as well as minority students.
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The pictures below are from our 5th grade field trip to JN Fries. The goal of this trip was to increase pipeline retention as well as provide shared experiences for all of our students that would not have an opportunity to visit our STEM middle school. We are happy to announce that after this trip, our pipeline retention went from 25 students in the 14-15 school year to 94 this year!
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