2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Background
Effective mentorship of undergraduate students by faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has been recognized by the National Academies as an avenue to address issues of diversity and identity. However, undergraduates themselves may also partake in mentorship, such as in K12 STEM outreach programs. There exists an opportunity to examine mentoring in this context.

Purpose
This paper presents analysis of a survey within a larger study that aims to cultivate a better understanding of STEM identity development in undergraduate student mentors in K12 STEM outreach programs. Study results may contribute to efforts to promote identity development in undergraduates, with primary focus on bolstering identity among women and minorities such that student retention may be affected.
A first step toward achieving this goal is to better understand if and how mentoring occurs in outreach programs. This paper addresses this through the research question: Do K12 STEM outreach program characteristics differ between programs that are and are not believed to foster mentoring relationships between university and K12 students? The program characteristics of interest include goals, K12 to university student ratio, duration, “cohort” experience among students, etc.

Methods
This research follows a phenomenographical methodology to study various experiences of the phenomenon “mentoring in K12 STEM outreach programs” through the lens of identity theory. Therefore, the survey portion of the research aimed to reach a variety of different kinds of university-run K12 STEM outreach programs; it served to provide background information about these programs and supplied a pool of potential participants for the next qualitative phase of the research. The survey was developed following a pilot study where 8 program coordinators and 19 university students were interviewed on their experiences in outreach.
The IRB-approved online survey was sent to university K12 STEM outreach program coordinators (identified via program webpages) along with distributions to ASEE’s CED, ERM, and PCEE divisions. This survey asked program coordinators to describe up to four outreach programs at their university, including program characteristics, perceptions of mentoring, and perceptions of impact on undergraduate students.
Data collection is complete; analysis is in progress using statistical analyses including chi square tests.

Results
In total, 61 programs coordinators completed the survey enough to yield a useable response (where at least one program was fully described). 131 distinct programs were represented from 47 universities.
In response to the question “Do you believe [program] fosters mentoring?” there were 77 “yes,” 30 “maybe/unsure,” and 24 “no.” The program coordinators believed these programs fostered mentoring due to many face-to-face interactions between K12 and college students (95%), open communication between K12 and college students (86%), and explicit training of college students on mentoring (40%). Additional data analysis on program characteristics in relation to fostering mentoring is ongoing.

Conclusions
Results from this survey will contribute a better understanding of the phenomenon of “mentoring in K12 STEM outreach programs.” Results will also provide a base for further studies, including an ongoing qualitative study by the authors examining potential connections between this phenomenon and undergraduate students’ STEM identities.