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Alignment of Hands-on STEM Engagement Activities with Positive STEM Dispositions in Secondary School Students

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Abstract

This study examines positive dispositions reported by middle school and high school students participating in programs that feature STEM-related activities. Middle school students participating in school-to-home hands-on energy monitoring activities are compared to middle school and high school students in a different project taking part in activities such as an after-school robotics program. Both groups are compared and contrasted with a third group of high school students admitted at the eleventh grade to an academy of mathematics and science. All students were assessed using the same science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) dispositions instrument. Findings indicate that the after-school group whose participants self-selected STEM engagement activities, and the self-selected academy of mathematics and science group, each had highly positive STEM dispositions comparable to those of STEM professionals, while a subset of the middle school whole-classroom energy monitoring group that reported high interest in STEM as a career, also possessed highly positive STEM dispositions comparable to the STEM Professionals group. The authors conclude that several different kinds of hands-on STEM engagement activities are likely to foster or maintain positive STEM dispositions at the middle school and high school levels, and that these highly positive levels of dispositions can be viewed as a target toward which projects seeking to interest mainstream secondary students in STEM majors in college and STEM careers, can hope to aspire. Gender findings regarding STEM dispositions are also reported for these groups.

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Notes

  1. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) for career intention of MSOSW students who stated intention for a STEM career versus those who did not, revealed no significant differences (p < .05) in any of the five STEM disposition measures.

  2. Similarly, the top quarter of the MSOSW students is more like the STEM Professionals than the bottom quarter of the MSOSW students (see Table 2).

  3. The profile of the dispositions of TAMS students is even more similar to STEM Professionals than CSTEM high school students (see Fig. 2).

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded in part by the NSF ITEST Grants #0833706, #1030865 and #1312168.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning, University of North Texas, 3940 Elm #G-150, Denton, TX, 76207, USA

    Rhonda Christensen, Gerald Knezek & Tandra Tyler-Wood

Authors
  1. Rhonda Christensen
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  2. Gerald Knezek
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  3. Tandra Tyler-Wood
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Correspondence to Rhonda Christensen.

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Christensen, R., Knezek, G. & Tyler-Wood, T. Alignment of Hands-on STEM Engagement Activities with Positive STEM Dispositions in Secondary School Students. J Sci Educ Technol 24, 898–909 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-015-9572-6

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