Help Save STEM Mentoring For Student Learning

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success. Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love everything. - Tesla.

Figs 1 above and Fig 2 below) Microcontrollers, sensors and displays are convenient tools for students to learn about electronics. 

Hello, my name is Melissa . I am a Mechanical Engineer and I would like your help in raising money to continue mentoring and keeping students in our communities involved in Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering (STEM). 

(Figs 3 and 4 below) Since I graduated from college, I have worked as an Engineer in Technology, specifically in automation and sensors. 

https://codewizardshq.com/stem-statistics/ 
Introduction to STEM Statistics
Science. Technology. Engineering. Math. STEM is the interactions between these topics that result in so much more than each part taken on its own. And more than just that, STEM is all the ways that these core disciplines are interacting with each other. It is a summation of what is happening in job fields across the board in this digital age. Whether it’s the way computers are improving how we do business or the way that we do education (looking at you, distance learning), STEM concepts are having an impact on each and every part of our lives.

When a concept has such a far reaching impact on our day to day lives, it is undeniably important to examine that impact. We’ve combed through the research on STEM in an attempt to better.

From the Toy Association: (STEM/STEAM Formula for Success): A majority of parents —76 percent—want their child to end up in a STEM-related career. 
https://www.toyassociation.org/App_Themes/toyassociation_resp/downloads/research/whitepapers/stemsteam-formulaforsuccess-2019.pdf

From Mandlabs: (Current state of STEM education in the US: What needs to be done?) 
https://www.mandlabs.com/current-state-of-stem-education-in-us-what-needs-to-be-done/

By 2019 there will be a requirement of 1.9 million STEM educated professionals in the US, but roughly 40 percent of students, who intend to do a major in STEM, end up switching to other subjects.

From Emerson: Emerson’s 2018 Stem Survey Shows a Need for Stem Education | Emerson US
https://www.emerson.com/en-us/news/corporate/2018-stem-survey.com

2 out of 5 Americans believe the STEM worker shortage is at crisis levels, according to results from the fourth annual STEM survey by Emerson.

Students today are twice as likely to study STEM fields compared to their parents, but the number of roles requiring STEM expertise is growing at a rate that exceeds current workforce capacity. 

In manufacturing alone, the National Association of Manufacturing and Deloitte predict the U.S. will need to fill about 3.5 million jobs by 2025; yet as many as 2 million of those jobs may go unfilled, due to difficulty finding people with the skills in demand.


From Pew Research Center: (Diversity in the STEM workforce varies widely across jobs)
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/09/diversity-in-the-stem-workforce-varies-widely-across-jobs/

STEM workers enjoy a pay advantage compared with non-STEM workers with similar levels of education. Among those with some college education, the typical full-time, year-round STEM worker earns $54,745 while a similarly educated non-STEM worker earns $40,505, or 26% less.

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(Figs 5, 6 and 7 below) My first robotic project was as a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering. I designed a mechanical Tic Tac Toe machine game that really worked and was fun to play!

 

 

Making and Tinkering is a combination that leads to innovation. Even without expensive hardware, curious students can still use their imagination and learn to build something they never thought they could. 

Robotics includes many diverse STEM disciplines including electronics, engineering, mechatronics, and physics.
My programs are developed to make learning fun. I like to have something the students can have in hand as an end result to their 
participation in a STEM workshop. The workshops are electronics and robotic based from simple blinking led lights 
to full functioning robots depending on the skill level of the students. Students can be from grade school level to senor citizen level in workshops design for all types of groups. In other words, anybody of any age beyond first grade level will be able to eventually take part in the workshops. All individuals will be able to access workshops online on a subscription basis. 
Students will be able to access hands-on tutorials at their local schools in the classroom or after school, libraries, community centers, etc. 
Older adults will be able to participate in local colleges, libraries, and community facilities online.

The program starts out with defining what a robot is, the different types of robotic machines, and naming structural components of a control or robotic system.  Sensors  with a comparison to human senses, professional and personal use cases, and constraints like money and space. This is all introduced introduced during the first part of the workshop. This content will change slightly due to the level of knowledge of a group of students.

A task list will be created for pseudocode before beginning to integrate the hardware and software for the understand the complete process.  Software needed will be taught on some level during the workshop with instructions given before hand on how to acquire necessary software. There will be some laptops provided with software loaded for students that prefere to work with teams and share. Starter parts will be prewired in simple cases. 

Hardware kits will have to be ordered and assembly prior to or during the workshop for the more advanced STEM Workshop material. 
Reference materials with explanation of workshop and references to books and supplier sites will be provided.

The length of the workshops vary. Classroom based workshops, tutorials, or presentations may last only one hour.
All day workshops, weekly one day a week, or one full week of a workshop can be completed as well. The workshops will not be competitive. I encourage students to work to their own potential with the goal of improving their knowledge and building their curiosity and confidence.

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With the low cost of hardware and computer power available now, technology development is more accessible than ever.

I have been teaching, helping, and mentoring students regularly since college through in-school and after school programs, as well as weekend workshops for 25 years. My first STEM mentoring experience was in college with a program called Girlstart, which is about empowering girls in STEM. I helped the young grade school students design and build small scale roller coasters. They were so excited, and it was such a rewarding experience. I was hooked! Since then, I've been involved in several different types of STEM mentoring and volunteering over the years, like afterschool Math programs at different Boys and Girls Clubs, and also elementary and middle schools. For eight years I presented a career workshop called Robots and Sensors to students for Expanding Your Horizons ( EYH) at a local University. EYH is a program that motivates young women in science and engineering. Dozens of women provided workshops for the students, and the students were able to choose which workshop to attend. My robotics workshops waswere very popular and even got featured on the nightly news the last year I participated.

(Figs 8 and 9  below) NXT Robot Humanoid and a Personal Controllable Humanoid Pablo

The grade school through high school students that participated in EYH provided positive feedback for the robots and sensors workshop that I presented to them.

(FIg 10 below) Robots and sensors workshop comments and feedback.

 

Since graduating college, I have gone back to school and received Electronic Automation training, plus more education in robotics and electrical engineering to add to my skill set. This extra education has helped me with mentoring students at local high schools in my area in preparation for the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics competition.

(Fig 11 below) Cleveland High School Robotics Team     

 

 

(Figs 12 and 13 below) Cleveland High School Robot with sensors that I helped build and teach the students how to program.

From Design and Technology Education: (Williams, J. (2011). STEM education: Proceed with caution. Design and Technology Education: An International Journal, 16(1).):

The rationale for investment in STEM education relates mainly to its association with improved economic outcomes

There is a correlation between the promotion of technology education and economic depressions in the 1890s, 1930s and 1980s

From Journal of Curriculum Studies: (Voogt, J., & Roblin, N. P. (2012).
A comparative analysis of international frameworks for 21st century competences: Implications for national curriculum policies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(3), 299–321.):

The 21st century job market requires a new set of skills, and there is more emphasis on technology skills

From Skipy: (The Benefits of STEM toys in the Growing Years)
https://www.playskipy.com/blog/benefits-of-stem-toys/

Only 20% of students meet STEM benchmarks, and this is even though careers in STEM topics are the most in-demand and also the highest-paying.https://youtu.be/_ghZGG95MYY 
STEM in Early Education Stats
These statistics are specifically dealing with STEM in education, with a focus on the years before age 8. There is a consensus that it is important to begin STEM learning early, since an early understanding of STEM concepts is one of the best indicators of success in those fields in later years. But many early education teachers are among the least qualified to teach STEM concepts. This is especially troubling because the teacher’s own confidence in the student’s ability to learn a concept is one of the most influential indicators of whether or not the student will succeed in learning it.

From the Joan Ganz Cooney Center: (STEM Starts Early: Grounding Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in Early Childhood) https://joanganzcooneycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/jgcc_stemstartsearly_final.pdf

A 2016 study, for example, examined learning experiences in more than 7,750 children from kindergarten entry to the end of eighth grade, and found that early acquisition of knowledge about the world was correlated with later science success. Among children who entered kindergarten with low levels of general knowledge, 62% were struggling in science in third grade and 54% were still struggling in eighth grade.

Children who engage in scientific activities from an early age develop positive attitudes toward science which also correlate with later science achievement and they are more likely to pursue STEM expertise and careers later on.

Even before one year of age, babies have been shown to systematically test physical hypotheses when they observe objects behaving in unexpected ways.

Across the research literature, family engagement in the math and literacy education of young children (3–8 years) has a consistently positive effect on children’s learning in those areas, and this relation is strongest when that engagement takes place outside of school.

Young children are capable of engaging in, at developmentally appropriate levels, the scientific practices that high school students carry out. Even in the first year of life, babies systematically test physical hypotheses when they see something that doesn’t conform to their expectations.

As with learning a new language, children become fluent in STEM habits and more knowledgeable about STEM topics when they are immersed in them.
(Figs 14 and 15 below) Microelectronic controllers  and sensors can run on a simple laptop computer and battery power.


From Nation’s Report Card: (NAEP Report Cards – Home)

66 percent of fourth graders are not proficient in science and 60 percent were not proficient in math.

From Taylor and Francis Online: (Early Childhood Educators’ Perceptions of Nature, Science, and Environmental Education)

Early childhood educators are least confident about teaching nature/science.

From First Things First: (Brain Development First Things First.Org)
https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/

The human brain grows to 90% of its adult size by age 5.

(Duncan, G.J., & K. Magnuson. 2011. “The Nature and Impact of Early Achievement Skills, Attention Skills, and Behavior Problems.” Chap. 3 in Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances, eds. G.J. Duncan & R.J. Murnane, 47–69. New York: Russell Sage.)

STEM habits of mind—such as critical thinking, persistence, and systematic experimentation—are important across all subject areas and may be essential to how children learn to learn.

From Business Roundtable: (Why ReadingMatters)
https://s3.amazonaws.com/brt.org/archive/BRT_Why_Reading_Matters_12192016.pdf

Math skills and reading skills at kindergarten entry are equally predictive of reading skills in eighth grade.

From Creative Education: 

(Seker, P.T., & F. Alisinanoglu. 2015. “A Survey Study of the Effects of Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs and Self-Efficacy Toward Mathematics Education and Their Demographic Features on 48- to 60-Month Old Preschool Children’s Mathematic Skills.” Creative Education 6 (3): 405–14.)

The strongest predictor of preschoolers’ math learning was their teachers’ belief that math education was appropriate for their age.

From SEED Conference Collected Papers: (ECRP: Beyond This Issue, Collected Papers from the SEED (STEM in Early Education and Development) Conference)
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/beyond/seed/zan.html

Classrooms that rely primarily on lecture-based instruction, in which teachers control decision making and discussion, are the least effective at fostering self-reliance and resilience, two characteristics that are foundational to STEM inquiry and practices 

STEM Toys Stats:
These are statistics relating to STEM focused children’s toys and the effects they have. In general, parents feel that STEM focused toys are extremely important to their childrens’ abilities in STEM subjects. The majority of parents also want their children to learn to code to some degree, but many feel unqualified to teach the necessary skills themselves. 

From the Toy Association: (Reading Room) https://www.toyassociation.org/ta/research/reading/toys/research-and-data/reading-room/reading-room.aspx

The majority of parents (67 percent) believe STEM/STEAM-focused toys are the primary way to encourage development of science, technology, engineering, and math in their child, followed by at-home experiences (57 percent).

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE parents face in fostering STEM/STEAM skills is competition with screen time (50 percent), followed by time constraints (45 percent), and lack of fun learning options (39 percent)

Forty percent of the parents acknowledged that their child spends between three to four hours a day using technology. Thirty percent of the parents revealed their child spends one to two hours, while 19 percent of parents confessed their children spend as much as six hours a day looking at a screen.

With all this screen time, 45 percent admitted their kids knew more than they did about technology, with only 28 percent of parents saying they were more tech savvy than their kids. Collectively, 73 percent of the parents who admitted their kids knew more about technology than they did confided that their kids surpassed them as young as four years old.

72 percent of parents agreed that their child’s better understanding of technology made it difficult for them to help their kids learn.

Three specific skills topped parents’ lists of what kids should master and were pretty evenly rated. They include written and oral communication (60 percent), tech/computer literacy (58 percent), and mathematics (57 percent).

Coding is a skill set parents would like their kids to acquire with 85 percent having encouraged or plan to encourage their child to learn to code. The majority feel the ideal age to begin developing these skills is between six and seven years old.

https://builtin.com/women-tech/women-in-tech-workplace-statistics 
:https://youtu.be/gCgXa2VKGA8


https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/workforce-03.html 

Approximately 59% of the projected increase in S&E jobs is in computer/mathematical scientist occupations. These occupations also have the largest growth rate (23.1%). Biological/agricultural/environmental life scientists and social scientists/psychologists (who account for a much smaller proportion of S&E workers) have the next highest projected growth rates: 20.4% and 18.5%, respectively.
The projected growth rates for engineers (10.6%) and physical scientists (12.7%) are somewhat lower than the rate for all occupations.
Health care practitioners and technicians, a non-S&E occupational category that contains significant numbers of S&E-trained people, is projected to grow by 25.9%.

Skilled Technical Workforce:
According to the most recent estimates, the U.S. workforce includes about 17 million skilled technical workers, that is, those who are employed in occupations that require S&E expertise and technical knowledge and whose educational attainment is some high school or a high school diploma, some college or an associate’s degree, or equivalent training. These workers are concentrated in four broad occupational categories: construction and extraction (21%), health care (20%), installation, maintenance, and repair (20%), and production (16%) 

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A grant from my previous employer allowed my team to create a portable workshop for classes in the local school district. Me and my team presented our finished product to an advanced physics class at a local high school where we demonstrated concepts in remote factory automation. The students really enjoyed the technology and the presentation, and learned how they could be part of remote automation in a factory environment in their future. We were also asked by our company's management to present our concept to several engineering organizations, and our team received positive feedback on the possibility of our company incorporating our portable STEM student learning kit into the local school district curriculum. 

(Fig 16) School District STEM Design Team

(Fig 17) Pressure sensor for weight feedback

(Fig 18) Realtime output charted online for automation control

From Rand: (Who Gets Counted as Part of America’s STEM Workforce?)
https://codewizardshq.com/stem-statistics/

Women receive a premium for working in STEM, 105 percentage points higher than the earnings of women in non-STEM.

Women are also more likely than men to work in the “STEM periphery.” These are roles in which they can apply STEM skills and expertise, but which are lower-paying jobs outside of traditional STEM occupations.

2 out of 3 US women say they were not encouraged to pursue a career in STEM.
63% of middle school girls who know women in STEM feel powerful doing STEM. From Microsoft Study https://news.microsoft.com/features/why-do-girls-lose-interest-in-stem-new-research-has-some-answers-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/

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I am currently mentoring students at a local aerospace high school, helping to prepare them for the First Robotics League competition next year. At this school I also participate in advanced physics lecture with an electrical engineering colleague. I am a Technical Education Board member at this same high school which is ranked as a top 200 high school in the United States. I have spoken with the Principal at the school and there is a possibility of the students that I help now, being able to help me with my STEM workshop in exchange for class credit. They will be learning a good skill on a more personal level based on their own input. I have talked with several of the high school students about this and they are very excited about the possible opportunity and have even approached me about how they can be more involved.
(Fig 19) Pheonix Force High School Robotics Team. I am currently a team programming mentor.

 

 

(Fig 20) Aviation High School - I co-presented the latest advanced physics vibration lecture.

 

I have funded most of my outside resources on my own, even working at a PC resale shop fixing computers while still working my full time professional job, in exchange for laptops the students could use so that they each have their own laptops.  Unfortunately all of the laptops were stolen during a break in at my home.  I have since not been able to replace them all.  At the time,  it was enough to provide the students with the hardware and software they needed for the projects in order to progress in learning about robot and sensor technology. From the money I raise with this STEM mentoring campaign, I plan to continue focusing on mentoring students in STEM and robotics, and providing what they need to advance. I have over 100 STEM based materials including books, instruments, devices, microcontrollers, motors, sensors, and kits that I have purchased with my own money in order to provide the tools necessary for my student workshops.

STEM Education Data Link: https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/
Welcome to the STEM Education Resource website, where you can discover the answers to important questions on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers using the information from the National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators report.

Explore these questions through interactive charts and maps that focus on different topics across all levels of education and the STEM workforce.

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=899
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, by gender
Information on the question of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the U.S. by gender?
And related Tables an Figures and Resources

https://parentology.com/stem-education-statistics-2019-how-the-u-s-ranks/
STEM EDUCATION STATISTICS 2019 – HOW THE US RANKS
written by Alexis Nicols July 29, 2019
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that the average fourth-grade math score in 2015 was 240 (on a scale of 0 to 500), down from 242 in 2013. The average eighth-grade score was 282 in 2015, compared with 285 in 2013; that score was the lowest since 2007.
In 2015, 24% of fourth-graders, 32% of eighth-graders, and 40% of 12th-graders were rated “below basic” in science.
In a 2015 Pew Research Center report, only 29% of Americans rated their country’s K-12 education in STEM as above average or the best in the world.
Members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that just 16% considered American K-12 STEM education above average; 46% said it was below average.

https://www.idtech.com/blog/stem-education-statistics
The state of STEM education told through 18 stats
millions of STEM jobs are projected to go unfilled in the near future. In fact, it's estimated that 3.5 million jobs will need to be filled by 2025.
Stem Education Stats Highlights:

Employment in STEM occupations has grown 79% since 1990.
The US placed 30th of 64 countries in math, and 11th in science according to US World News Report

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2020/11/13/computer-science-education-still-not-in-majority-of-schools/
Fewer than half of the schools in the US offer computer science classes. 

Companies like https://www.idtech.com/social-impact
iD Tech is dedicated to closing the digital divide in STEM education.
STEM camps near you!
STEM summer camps and courses teach hard skills for future careers in science, technology, engineering, and math in a fun and engaging setting. Such programs foster valuable 21st-century life skills like problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and more.

 

Here are a couple of examples of a  line follower robot and grabber bot I have built for workshops over the years:
https://youtu.be/QL10Ryk_Td0
https://youtu.be/nNIkFCAdTuI

There is more fun to come with hands on workshops, online subscriptions to tutorials, hardware kits, and lesson plans.
(Figs 21 and 22) Mobile robots with a variety of sensors that I have developed

 

 

 

If you have anything to give for help in my endeavor to continue to provide mentorship, training, and materials for student STEM activities, the extra funds would help to provide more local and online support to mentor students that want to learn more about STEM. I would like your help in order for me to continue with online development of workshops so that students can watch videos and follow along with the projects. Also, I would be able to provide them with information about where to get parts and more instructional materials for the development of their own projects. This money would also go for laptops, software licenses, more up to date hardware, and lesson materials. A mobile workshop utility vehicle would offer me the ability able to meet more children where they are in local schools, libraries, churches, and other public learning environments, so that they can work hands on and learn more about STEM.

 

Thank you very much for your contribution and for reading my story.
(Fig 23) With the skill sets I have developed, over my career, I would like the opportunity to share my knowledge with people who want to learn. With your help I can pass on to people with normally no access, an opportunity to experience STEM in order to increase their opportunity for success!

Sincerely,

Melissa McQueen