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- Creators: Department of Information Systems
Description
This paper explores factors to study why the number of students in STEM are not as high as they could be. Based on both Veda and Soumya's personal experiences, factors were chosen to understand their impact on whether a high school student would choose a STEM major in their college of choice, which could lead them to having a career in STEM. The factors explored will be location, grade level, school, parent/guardian involvement, teacher involvement, media influences, and personal interest. Data was collected through surveys sent to both high school and college students. The high school data came solely from schools in the Phoenix area, whereas college students' data came from across the world. These surveys contained questions regarding all of the above factors and were crafted so that we could gain further insight into each factor without producing bias. Each factor had at least one personal experience by either Veda or Soumya. Many of the survey responses gave insight to how and why a student would decide to pursue STEM or why they did pursue STEM. The main implications derived from the study are the following: the importance of a good support network, active parent/guardian and teacher involvement, and specifically active science teacher involvement. Data from both college and high school students showed that students highly valued a science teacher. One recommendation from this thesis is to provide a training for teachers to learn about how to connect concepts they teach to real-world applications. This can be administered through the district so that they may bring in anyone they feel is qualified to teach such topics such as industry professionals or teachers who specialize in teaching STEM. The last recommendation is for parents to participate in a workshop that will inform them of how to be more involved/engaged with their student.
ContributorsPushpraj, Soumya (Co-author) / Inamdar, Veda (Co-author) / Scott, Kimberly (Thesis director) / EscontrÃÂas, Gabriel (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
GENDER DIVERSITY IN STEM: Investigation into Gender Implication in Pursuing Computing-related Majors
Description
This research study concerns the issue of gender diversity that still persists in STEM education, especially in computing-related fields. Females are so severely underrepresented in computing education that the diversity in the fields is even less than that in physics in K-12. This research study seeks to address the problem of low female participation in computing-related fields. For the purpose of the study, two versions of surveys were distributed. One was filled out by 94 local elementary school students that mostly in 3rd-4th grade; the other went to 399 college freshmen in W. P. Carey School of Business. It asks questions, including if students are interested in learning STEM, and what reasons explain them having interest or no interest in STEM learning. Meanwhile, the study aims to unveil if there are any gender discrepancies in regards to STEM learning. Besides those dynamics, three factors—attitudes toward learning computer skills, logic, and coding—are examined for indications on students’ interest in STEM learning.
The results suggest no indication that female students are necessarily less interested than male students in studying computing-related majors, despite that female students find working with computers and coding more difficult. Female students have diverse and varied interests that are non-computing-related, which could be an underlying factor that contributes to their “lower” participation in those majors. While self-interest is the key factor that influences students’ decisions in pursuing STEM majors or non-STEM majors, they also consider job market outlook an important factor. Compared to female students, male students tend to cite family influence in deciding whether to study STEM majors. Furthermore, showing positive attitudes toward working with computers, learning new computer skills, and even coding indicates both male and female students’ potential desires to pursue computing-related majors or careers.
The results suggest no indication that female students are necessarily less interested than male students in studying computing-related majors, despite that female students find working with computers and coding more difficult. Female students have diverse and varied interests that are non-computing-related, which could be an underlying factor that contributes to their “lower” participation in those majors. While self-interest is the key factor that influences students’ decisions in pursuing STEM majors or non-STEM majors, they also consider job market outlook an important factor. Compared to female students, male students tend to cite family influence in deciding whether to study STEM majors. Furthermore, showing positive attitudes toward working with computers, learning new computer skills, and even coding indicates both male and female students’ potential desires to pursue computing-related majors or careers.
ContributorsZhou, Xingyan (Author) / Lin, Elva (Suh-Yun) (Thesis director) / Hsiao, Sharon I-Han (Committee member) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This paper about the Garden Grub concerns the growing Agritech industry along with exposing middle school students to STEM education. Currently over half of America's students are not prepared to be successful in our technology driven world. These students did not have the opportunity to be exposed to many Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math related careers or majors before entering the working world and/or college. These students are unaware of the real-life applications these topics can have and will never have the chance to pursue these fields. Using the Garden Grub, students will be introduced to the world of Agritech and how traditional agriculture is changing in include more technology. The Garden Grub is designed to not only introduce students to STEM in general, but specifically the Agritech Industry. With the Garden Grub kit and instructions students will be able to construct a small device that will monitor the external temperature and the soil moisture of a plant they are growing. For future implementations of the Garden Grub, we will develop a structured lesson plan to teach the users more about the device they are building. This is so in the future users could continue their education in Agritech and STEM because they have more knowledge on the subjects From standalone testing the Garden Grub, the device was able to successfully monitor the lettuce to ensure that it grew successfully. The Garden Grub instructions and kit were tested in a fourth-grade classroom, where college volunteers worked with the students to begin to create their own device. While there was not enough time to successfully complete the product the fourth graders were more interested in STEM than when we first started. Even though they struggled in the beginning, students quickly learned basic concepts , such as +/- circuit power, transfer of data, and sensor connections. More recently we were able to go into a middle school and teach in a classroom with the students who were part of a coding elective course. Since our last outing we were able to update the user manual and prepare more ahead of time. This gave us more time to explain the concepts to the students, along with being able to successful build all of the devices. They began to think of ways that this device could be applicable to their lives along with how the Garden Grub could be improved in the future.
ContributorsWynia, Rachel Marie (Author) / Lin, Elva (Thesis director) / Eakin, Hallie (Committee member) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This is a qualitative study about sources of self-efficacy and roles of assistive technologies (AT) associated with the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) choice and participation of STEM professionals and graduate students with sensory and orthopedic disabilities. People with disabilities are underrepresented in STEM, which can be traced back along the STEM pipeline to early undergraduate participation in STEM. Little research exists, however, about pathways and factors associated with successful STEM participation for people with disabilities at any point along their trajectories. Eighteen STEM professionals and graduate students with sensory and orthopedic disabilities were interviewed for this study. Sources of self-efficacy were sought from interview transcripts, as were emergent themes associated with the types, uses and roles of AT. Findings suggest that people with sensory and orthopedic disabilities weigh sources of self-efficacy differently from white males without disabilities in STEM and more like other underrepresented minorities in STEM. Social persuasions were most frequently reported and in far more detail than other sources, suggesting that this source may be most impactful in the development of self-efficacy beliefs for this group. Additionally, findings indicate that AT is critical to the successful participation of people with sensory and orthopedic disabilities in STEM at all points along their STEM pathways. Barriers center around issues of access to full engagement in mainstream STEM classrooms and out of school opportunities as well as the impact of ill-informed perceptions about the capabilities of people with disabilities held by parents, teachers and college faculty who can act as gatekeepers along STEM pathways. Gaps in disability specialists' knowledge about STEM-specific assistive technologies, especially at the college level, are also problematic. The prevalence of mainstream public school attendance reported by participants indicates that classroom teachers and disability-related educators have important roles in providing access to STEM mastery experiences as well as providing positive support and high expectations for students with disabilities. STEM and disability-based networks served to provide participants with role models, out of school STEM learning experiences and important long-term social connections in STEM communities.
ContributorsPacheco, Heather A (Author) / Baker, Dale R. (Thesis advisor) / Forouzesh, Mohammed (Committee member) / Pavri, Shireen (Committee member) / Semken, Steven (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014