- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1439796
- First Name Angie
- Last Name Hodge
- Discipline Mathematics
- Co-PI(s)
Neal Grandgenett, UNO, ngrandgenett@unomaha.edu; Michael Matthews, UNO, michaelmatthews@unomaha.edu
Elliott Ostler, UNO, elliottostler@unomaha.edu; Janice Rech, UNO, jrech@unomaha.edu - Presenters
Neal Grandgenett, University of Nebraska at Omaha, ngrandgenett@unomaha.edu
Need
Building a successful Noyce effort for teacher certification may well be synergistic with other community projects, where Noyce students can learn to connect better with underserved populations while simultaneously helping such populations to increasingly be interested in science and mathematics. This poster describes the intensive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) summer intervention being undertaken by the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Noyce project in partnership with Girls Inc. to help 60 middle school girls, from high minority urban areas, to successfully enter the STEM pathways into college and career.
Goals
In this partnership project, the Noyce students receive valuable teaching experiences with underserved populations, while helping more than 20 different STEM faculty members in facilitating the four-week summer camp for the middle school minority girls. The camp is very STEM oriented, and both the Noyce students, and the middle school youth they are helping to teach get a better sense of the interdisciplinary nature of STEM instruction, and how such instruction can achieve fundamental outcomes, related to enhances STEM student achievement. The poster will showcase various strategic efforts for the successful partnership, related outcomes of the Eureka camp, as well as video clips, images and materials showcasing the Noyce students in action and the various STEM learning activities being undertaken.
Approach
The Girls Inc. Eureka!-STEM Camp (2016) in which the Noyce students help to teach include a wide range of STEM activities. These include topics such as: Week One – Coding and Wearable Technologies (Rookies and Vets); Week Two – Robotics (Rookies and Vets) and Geology (Vets); Week Three – Mathematics and Chemistry (Rookies) and Bioinformatics and Biomechanics (Vets); Week Four – Bioinformatics (Rookies) and Mathematics and Chemistry (Vets); Field Trips (Friday of each week) include: Glacier Creek Preserve, Edgerton Explorit Center, Adventureland, and others to be decided soon (discussions underway).
Physical Activities (that include STEM contexts and some instruction) include:
Swimming (with Red Cross certified instructors), Basketball, Kickball, Rock Climbing, Tennis, Track and Field, Yoga, Zumba, Dance, Battleship, Paddle Boarding, and Kayaking.
Personal Growth and Development Sessions include: Health and Sexuality (Will Power/Won’t Power), and Careers.
Outcomes
The outcomes of the camp have been well documented for the last two year, and positive outcomes have been achieved for both the Noyce students helping with the instruction, and the middle school girls participating in the 4 weeks of STEM camp activities that receive the instruction. For the Noyce students, outcomes include an enhanced understanding of interdisciplinary STEM instruction, problem based learning fundamentals, and an increased interest in teaching underserved populations. For the 60 middle school girls in the camp, which are 100% first generation college, 100% minority, and 98% free and reduced lunch, outcomes that have been documented included increased understanding of selected STEM concepts, and increased interest in STEM and an increased interest in going to college and potentially majoring in a STEM related area.
Broader Impacts
The broader impacts of the project relate to a stronger instructional relationship between the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the Girls Inc. effort in Omaha. The Omaha Public Schools have nearly 50,000 students, and a 70% minority student population. Girls Inc. targets the enhancement of models for serving middle schools in STEM instruction, and the Noyce program at UNO is fully synergistic with the Girls Inc. efforts. It is a powerful partnership, that is essentially a model of how to get Noyce students some excellent, rich, and inquiry-oriented STEM experiences, while also directly helping a very important underserved population (minority girls) in receiving better STEM instruction and a running start at College.
