Introducing STEM to 7 th Grade Girls using SeaPerch and Scratch

This Innovative Practice Full Paper discusses a STEM academy that used SeaPerch and Scratch as engaging hands-on approaches to teach seventh grade middle school girls engineering skills, scientific principles, and programming concepts to increase their knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Adding diversity to the STEM workforce and increasing enrollment in STEM degrees is critical for fulfilling the needs of our modern economy. Today, many organizations/institutions are preparing future workers for the modern workforce by implementing summer camps/academies to engage students in STEM disciplines at a young age. Exposing young students to the critical thinking and reasoning skills that are intrinsic to STEM disciplines can help to alleviate or even combat the decline of students in STEM careers. We have developed an academy to demonstrate STEM concepts to 7th grade girls. Our STEM academy differs from others in several ways: First, it was for 7th grade girls only, creating a non-competitive social learning opportunity, to improve female participation. Second, we hired female instructors and invited female professionals from local industries to assist the academy by serving as mentors and role models for the participants. Third, it introduced STEM concepts and principles to the girls. Fourth, it adopted social learning, e.g., buddy system, to help the girls to learn better. A formal assessment of the 2018 academy found that the academy’s participants experienced a significant increase in knowledge and interest in STEM. This paper describes the organization, coordination, content, and assessment of the STEM academy. It describes how the academy was organized and taught, which includes a brief description of the instructional materials, the concepts taught in each hands-on session, how the academy was assessed, the assessment results, the first-year experience of conducting the STEM academy, and lessons learned. This paper provides all the information needed for others to host similar academies and motivate the effort to increase female participation in STEM careers.