Although women make up a significant portion of the college educated population, there remains a sizable gap between the number of men and women pursuing degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The gender gap begins at middle school and widens considerably in later high school years. One major factor for this gap is the lack of belonging women can feel towards engineering. As one approach to developing and improving this sense of belonging, we focused on improving students’ comprehension of engineering topics during a weeklong materials science and engineering summer camp for high school girls. We took a two-prong approach: a unifying paradigm and a design project. The purpose of this was to allow for transfer of learning throughout the week, allowing the students to build and showcase their own comprehension. The paradigm, the materials science tetrahedron, provided cohesion throughout an otherwise broad and seemingly disconnected field, while the design project allowed for students to implement what they learned during the week in a group setting. This approach concomitantly enhances confidence and their sense of belonging within engineering. In this paper we highlight lessons learned from incorporating this approach into our program, including our perception of its effectiveness and feedback from the girls. The preliminary results show that our summer camp is a unique and well-suited opportunity to study how comprehension can engender a sense of belonging amongst female students with the ultimate goal of closing the gender gap in engineering fields.
http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-5052-4262
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
[biography]
Kaitlin is currently an Academic Development Specialist at Ansys. She received her PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign under Professor Paul Braun. Her research was split: focusing on manipulating eutectic material microstructures and engineering outreach.
Nicole received her B.S. in Engineering Physics at the Colorado School of Mines (’13) and her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (’18). She is currently a lecturer in the Materials Engineering De
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0628-0501
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
[biography]
Jessica A. Krogstad is an assistant professor in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD in Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, she held a postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Her current research explores the interplay between phase or morphological evolution and material functionality in structural materials under extreme conditions. She is also one of the co-coordinators for Girls Learning About Materials (GLAM), a summer camp for high school women interested in engineering.
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