Looks like we should talk! We're both partnering preservice teachers and engineering students to work with 4th and 5th grade kids. We could undoubtedly learn a lot from one another. So exciting to see you've brought in the Dads. Brilliant idea. Check out out here: http://videohall.com/p/1967 And then let's make a plan to connect.

Its great to involve family members for STEM teaching and learning especially for first generation students.

I really enjoyed your video and project.  What were some big lessons you learned through your work? 

I've worked in girl-serving organizations to expose underrepresented women to engineering, so this is interesting to see a boy-serving project. What do you find are the most effective approaches to an all-male audience? Are there different starting points or interests between young men and women?

This is a great program for engaging families, particularly fathers. I appreciated how they try to incorporate STEM in everything. Thank you for focusing on young children of color and showing the value of STEM academics for this population. Excellent.  

What a wonderful program!Your video is beautiful - thank you.There is nothing like having role models that you can relate to. What plans do you have to build capacity? 

What a great program! I loved your video. Have you looked at whether this changes fathers' attitudes about STEM, especially in a way that might change their future behavior and involvement in doing STEM activities with their sons?

Yes, program mentors and also sites. Thank you!

Thanks for the clarification. We are always looking to improve how we train the mentors. Changes we have made to their training include: Lesson design and delivery, classroom management, and more recently, culturally relevant practices. We regularly observe the sessions and provide feedback to the program manager who then works on implementing the changes.

We also are looking to scale up to new school sites. Currently, we serve three elementary schools and are planning to add at least one next year. Thanks so much for your feedback and questions!

I appreciate how you have included family members and am excited to hear that you are also expanding this program for girls.  You mentioned that it has been difficult to gather data from participating family members, but what about the student participants - how are you measuring impacts on their attitudes and ideas towards STEM?

We collect data from the students in three ways--survey (we have used one about their STEM career interests and a second one about their engineering identity), interviews each semester, and observations. This year, we've really focused on their level of engagement because everything was online and so we wanted to see how engaged they are. We used Wang et al.'s engagement scale to survey the students and to revise our interview questions.

Deeply appreciate this work and the approach. Thanks for investing in our future scientists in this way!

Great work! I love the mentorship approach and exposure to STEM for both boys and their fathers. Your intervention is a very holistic and mindful approach to an intervention for young students. Thank you for your video! 

Congratulation to the team, very impactful work!

This is beautiful work! I love the family and community connections you are foregrounding. Our work also focuses on mentorship, and I'd love to hear more details about the kinds of training you provide for mentors.

Bravo to all for this wonderful discussion! Thank you for viewing and adding your questions and expertise. Please share the STEM Showcase with others so they can participate in the discussion too. Let's get more educators involved in viewing these top projects. Voting and discussion ends on May 18th at 8PM EDT. (but viewing is open anytime) https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/

For presenters, what are your next steps going forward?

Agreed, our discussion has been fantastic! Thanks for the question DeLene! Here are a few ways our team plans to scale the project: we will include girls to broaden participation, add a parent/family liaison to program staff to assist with family engagement, and increase the number of participating schools in the surrounding area.   

Rick, It’s good to see that you plan to include girls. There are undoubtedly mothers,too, who will be happy to be mentoring them.