Fostering Interest in Information Technology htt://fit.umd.umich.edu

Mesut Duran University of Michigan-Dearborn

Abstract

project is designed to provide opportunities for underrepresented and underserved high-school students, particularly those from disadvantaged urban communities in the Southeastern Michigan to learn about, experience, and use IT within the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The project will accomplish its goal through the creation of a “Community of Designers”—an environment where high-school students, K-12 STEM teachers, undergraduate/graduate student assistants (U/GSAs), and post-secondary STEM content experts work together. The project will establish and facilitate four project-based design teams, each focusing on an IT-intensive STEM area. Each design team will consist of 10 high-school students, one school teacher, one U/GSA, and one post-secondary STEM content area expert. The overarching task of each design team is to learn about, experience, and use IT within the context of STEM and explore 21st century career and educational pathways. Each design team's members will participate in several year-round, two-year IT enrichment experiences and opportunities. The project calls for the investment and robust participation of students and parents, area school districts, the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-D)'s colleges and schools, and the region’s business, industry, and government sectors.

Goals & Objectives

Activities

The project concentrates on all four areas of STEM. The science component will concentrate on three different but related applications of IT in the sciences; measurement, modeling, and mapping. The technology component will focus on technological tools and languages for designing and developing Web applications such as Web-based games and chat-rooms The engineering component will emphasize the basics of robotics and its applications as related to IT, including modeling robots, programming robots, and integrating robots into an application environment such as a manufacturing system or a medical application. The mathematics component will focus on statistical science with applications in three increasingly important areas of scientific investigation: public health, environmental issues, and manufacturing reliability and safety.

IT-STEM

The project approaches the 21st century skilled IT workforce issue as a community-wide responsibility. The project calls for the investment and robust participation of UM-D’s colleges and schools, area school districts, the region’s business, industry, and government sectors, and parents and volunteers. Aligned with this notion, partnership of the project include (a) UM-D’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, and the School of Education; (b) Detroit Public Schools; (c) Survivability Technology Area of the US Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), Treeflow Technologies, Dassault Systèmes’/DELMIA Corporation, FANUC Robotics, Inc, Barbara Ann KARMANOS Cancer Institute, Systems Analytics and Environmental Science Department at Ford Motor Company, Advanced & Manufacturing Engineering Quality Department at Ford Motor Company, and The 21st Century Digital Learning Environments.

Partnership

Events

The project will sponsor two cohort groups, each participating for two consecutive years. Each design team’s members will participate in several year-round project activities that will create IT enrichment experiences within the context of STEM and explore related 21st century education and career pathways. The project will also distribute online learning activities using the project’s Web site, blog, and podcasting sites, and will thus establish a culture of collaboration and discourse that extends participation outside the confines of the formal scheduled events.

Figure 1: Project Events in Each Two-Year Cycle

Year One: Capacity Building

The year will start with a preparation activity involving a summer course for K-12 STEM teachers, followed by a kickoff meeting as the school year begins, a set of IT intensive STEM area workshops for students during the year, and seminar meetings near the end of the fall and winter semesters. The year will conclude with real-world field-based experiences during the following summer providing opportunities for students to work directly with IT and STEM professionals and see examples of real-world workplace applications.

Year Two: Design

Aligned with the cyclic inquiry model’s 5 major steps—Ask, Investigate, Create, Discuss and Reflect, the design year will involve five segments, each including multiple site-based sessions. The overarching task of each design team in this year is to design inquiry-based authentic projects that are of at least science fair quality using one or more content-specific IT tools explored during the previous capacity building year and stimulating ideas and experiences gained during the field trips. The design year will end with a techno/career fair during the following summer.

Figure 2: Five Major Steps of the Cyclic Inquiry Model

Follow-on Activities

Dissemination

Contact information

Through several follow on initiatives and alumni activities, the project will enable continued communication, networking, and collaboration among project participants after they complete the project’s planned activities. We will advise project graduates to participate in nationwide competitions with their projects during their senior year of high school. We will also provide assistance to students who wish to take pre-college classes related to IT-STEM areas. Students will also receive continued assistance with their college applications. Students from the first cohort will be invited to mentor students in the second cohort with their design projects. When participating teachers return to their schools, the project leadership and participating faculty members will assist them to assume leadership roles in their respective school districts and deliver IT-STEM intensive courses and course materials for K-12 students. We will administer an alumni meeting at the end of the three-year project inviting all past and current project participants, parents, and partnering university, business, industry, and government sectors to discuss the influence of the project on the students’ education and career.

The project will create a Web site, project blog, and podcasting site to disseminate its products such as learning resources, student projects, teacher developed Curriculum Guide (STEM guide book), and faculty developed IT-STEM course syllabi and materials. The project will be linked to the ITEST Learning Resource Center Web site for wider dissemination of the project’s events and products as well as collaborative exchange with other ITEST grantees. The project’s participating students and teachers will be involved in the dissemination of the products of the project to a statewide audience in their schools and school districts. Student projects will be displayed at the techno/career fair. Exemplary projects will be nominated to participate in Michigan’s science fair and the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The project leadership will participate in national and international conferences, and write for scholarly publications.

Mesut DuranUniversity of Michigan-Dearborn

School of EducationFairlane Center South19000 Hubbard Dr. Dearborn, MI 48126

Tell: 313.593.0981Fax: 313.593.9961Email: mduran@umich.eduURL: http://soe.umd.umich.edu

The project seeks to achieve the following six objectives:

Objective 1: To provide high-school students access to year-round, two-year IT enrichment experiences and opportunities to learn about, gain hands-on experience, and use IT within the context of STEM. Objective 2: To increase K-12 STEM teachers’ ability to design and deliver IT/STEM enrichment experiences and opportunities for their students. Objective 3: To develop a series of learning resources and deliverables that models the uses of IT within the context of STEM. Objective 4: To form a self-sustaining professional development network among high-school students, K-12 STEM teachers, U/GSAs, and post-secondary STEM content experts to reach and use IT resources for their further professional development. Objective 5: To increase post-secondary faculty members’ ability to design and deliver IT/STEM enrichment experiences and opportunities for K-12 STEM teachers. Objective 6: To research and disseminate the processes and the impact of the planned IT enrichment experiences and opportunities for high-school students and school teachers.

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