Claire Duggan

CAPSULE: AN INNOVATIVE CAPSTONE-BASED PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO ENGAGE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN STEM LEARNING

School children in general and high school students, in particular more often than not lose interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. Underrepresented and female students are even more discouraged by STEM courses. Our investigation and interviews with high school teachers cite that the main reason for such disinterest is the disconnect between school and reality. Students cannot relate the abstract concepts they learn in physics, biology, chemistry, or math to their surroundings. This paper discusses a new capstone project-based approach that closes this gap. This work is an outcome of an NSF funded project called CAPSULE (Capstone Unique Learning Experience). We use the top-down pedagogical approach instead of the traditional bottom-up approach. The top-down approach relates the abstract concepts to exciting open-ended capstone projects where students are engaged in designing solutions, like products to solve open-ended problems. This top-down approach is modeled after the college-level capstone design courses. The paper presents the model, its details, and implementation. It also presents the formative and summative evaluation of the model after deploying it in the Boston Public Schools, a system heavily populated by the targeted student groups.Copyright

Formative evaluation of an innovative program to prepare non-technical majors to join advanced manufacturing workforce

The manufacturing industry has been thriving recently after decades of defection offshore and outsourcing. The manufacturing industry in the state of Massachusetts is particularly strong. Massachusetts and other US states report shortage of enough skilled workforce to fill advanced manufacturing positions such as robotics operators, programmers, CNC programmers, CAD operators, and QA personnel, to name a few. The labor shortage is attributed to the lack of STEM pipeline of students who are interested to pursue STEM careers including manufacturing. This paper describes an innovative approach of how to re-train non-technical majors (liberal arts graduates) for a second career to join the manufacturing workforce. The paper focuses on the formative evaluation of the approach. It covers the evaluation instruments including survey forms, data collection, data analysis, and insightful conclusions. The formative evaluation is conducted by a professional external evaluation organization and administered to the first cohort in a three-year NSF funded program.

Internship and Experiential Learning Model for Liberal Arts Graduates to Prepare Them for Advanced Manufacturing Careers

Liberal Arts (BA) graduates are, more often than not, either underemployed or unemployed in the field(s) for which they received their degree. This is more so true in hard economic and recessionary times. It is also well known that BA graduates are well rounded by virtue of their education and are more adept at changing careers. Advanced manufacturing is one such career where BA graduates may excel, especially in entry-level positions such as CAD operators, CNC programmers, production supervisors, and in support staff roles. The challenge is how to prepare these non-technical majors (BA graduates) for technical careers (advanced manufacturing). This paper presents an internship model that is part of a 12-month fast track certificate in advanced manufacturing to enable BA graduates to gain both the technical skills and experiential knowledge they need to secure jobs in advanced manufacturing. This paper describes the certificate academic program, corresponding courses, and the recruitment process of BA graduates to provide context. It then focuses on the details of the internship model: recruiting industry partners to provide internships, preparing students for the internships, the management and support system of these internships, and lessons learned so far. These research findings are part of an NSF, 3-year grant that investigates a transformation model of BA graduates for careers in advanced manufacturing.Copyright

Addressing the problem of mal-employment of liberal arts graduates

Unlike technical graduates such as engineering and science, liberal arts graduates usually encounter difficulty finding jobs in their majors. A good percentage of them becomes under- or unemployed. This paper investigates and discusses an innovative approach to address this problem. We provide these students with an accelerated 12-month certificate in advanced manufacturing to help them apply for manufacturing positions. The paper discusses the design and content of the certificate.

Industry Partnership to Help Transform Liberal Arts Graduates to Advanced Manufacturing Careers

It is well recognized that manufacturing is making a comeback to the US, from the outsourcing that took place between 1980–2010. The need for advanced manufacturing careers is also well documented by many manufacturing organizations, substantiated by the report entitled “A National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing” which was released by the Executive Office of the President National Science and Technology Council’s in February 2012. The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) points out that at the height of the recession, 32% of manufacturers reported that they had jobs unfilled because they could not find people with requisite skills. It is also well documented that liberal arts (BA) graduates suffer from mal-employment problems; they are either underemployed or unemployed. To solve this problem, this paper describes an innovative solution of transforming BA graduates to take on advanced manufacturing positions to meet the skilled workforce needs and fill these positions. This paper briefly describes the program, but focuses mainly on one aspect of it: industry partnerships. We describe the importance of industry partners to the proposed solution. We also discuss industry needs.Copyright

Effective Use of Engineering in Teaching Secondary STEAM Courses: A Robotics Course Example

Global Learning Charter Public School (GLCPS) is an urban secondary school located in the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. GLCPS educates students in grades 5–12. It is a Title I school with over 74% of the student population on free and reduced lunch. Historically, only 60% of students graduating from New Bedford move on to postsecondary education. It is the goal of our school to change this and increase the number of students entering post secondary education and more specifically to increase their interest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) fields.GLCPS provides a unique educational experience where students demonstrate academic excellence and mastery of essential skills. These skills include: technology literacy, public speaking, global citizenship and arts exploration. Incorporation of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) is a continued goal for our school. After attending teacher educator training/professional development in engineering-based learning (EBL), we decided to create a robotics course, which fully embedded EBL into the curriculum. The goal of this robotics course is two fold: 1) Combine engineering, math, science, and art/creativity into one course; and 2) engineering-based learning can impact the way students learn STEAM principles, retain STEAM theory, and apply them to real world, relevant applications.The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how engineering-based learning inspired and impacted the development of a robotics course in an urban, financially disadvantaged, secondary charter school. Specifically, we detail how the principles and tools of the engineering-based learning pedagogy affected the development and implementation of this robotics course. Lastly, we will demonstrate how EBL and the robotics course have changed student perceptions of science, engineering, and math.Copyright

Development and Implementation of an Engineering Course Guided by Involvement in University-Based Professional Development

Amesbury High School is a small suburban district located in the northeastern portion of Massachusetts. Amesbury High School offers a traditional science curriculum (biology, chemistry, and physics) blended with many elective courses. Recently added electives include microbiology, forensics, geology, environmental science, and meteorology to name a few. All of these courses offer students a chance to explore in-depth issues connected to each of these fields with a curriculum designed to address real-life connections, strengthen their problem solving skills, and provide opportunities for application of their knowledge. Based upon review of the Next Generation Science Standards, it became evident a need to offer students a STEM course that was strongly focused on problem-based learning, which bridged math and science content, and offered students a better understanding of the engineering field.In the spring of 2012, a curriculum was written based upon experiences in Northeastern University’s Research Experience for Teachers Program and the CAPSULE Program which are both funded by NSF. Both of these programs offer rich professional development, is focused on engineering-based learning (EBL), have strong connections to University faculty, and provide teachers the opportunity to develop lessons and units that they can directly apply in their classrooms. The CAPSULE program provided extensive training in developing units based upon the engineering design process (EDP), offered intensive training in SolidWorks® (mechanical design software), and provided each of its participants with continued support through classrooms visits and online discussion forums.Based upon participation in these programs, available support through University connections, and a deeper understanding of the field of engineering and the EDP, we anticipate the curriculum developed for our students will lead to a deeper understanding of STEM topics and lead to an increase in enrollment in our science and math classes. I also feel that the potential exists to have CAPSTONE projects become a requirement in the newly developed course.This paper covers the details of the initial offering of the newly-developed course, the changes made for the upcoming school year, and the challenges faced throughout the process of implementation. It also addresses the grant writing successes and failures encountered and how the funding has been used to enhance components of the course. Included in the paper are student reactions and feedback that was considered in revising the course. Lastly, the paper summarizes my involvement in both of these professional development programs and how they are integral to developing leadership skills and confidence within the education profession.Copyright