Education Commons^™

How Do Undergraduate Stem Mentors Reflect Upon Their Mentoring Experiences In An Outreach Program Engaging K-8 Youth?, Kari L. Nelson, Jamie Sabel, Cory Forbes, Neal Grandgenett, William E. Tapprich, Christine E. Cutucache

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Many university students are becoming involved in mentoring programs, yet few studies describe the impact of mentoring on the mentor. Additionally, many studies report that students graduating from college are not prepared to enter the workforce in terms of key career skills and/or content knowledge. Herein, we examine the impact of our program, NE STEM 4U (Nebraska Science, Technology, Engineering and Math for You), in which undergraduate (UG) mentors engage K-8 youth in after-school STEM experiments. The UGs reflected upon their experiences using post-mentoring evaluations, 12- and 24-week interviews, and exit surveys. Many of the questions asked of …

Ne Stem 4u: An Out-Of-School Time Academic Program To Improve Achievement Of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Youth In Stem Areas, Christine E. Cutucache, Jamie L. Luhr, Kari L. Nelson, Neal Grandgenett, William E. Tapprich

Biology Faculty Publications

Background

The Nebraska Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics 4U (NE STEM 4U) program was initiated at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) in 2013. NE STEM 4U is a student-run, faculty-led program facilitating problem-based learning (PBL) sessions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for socioeconomically disadvantaged kindergarten through grade 8 (K-8) students. PBL sessions are provided throughout the academic year in a twice-weekly, after-school, informal education program. The instructional material provided after school builds upon the curricula of the school day. Importantly, this program is a partnership between faculty members and administrators in higher education at UNO with …

Pairing Educational Robotics With Geospatial Technologies In Informal Learning Environments, Bradley S. Barker, Neal Grandgenett, Gwen Nugent, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Educational robotics, when paired with geospatial technologies and taught in an informal educational environment, can be an innovative strategy to teach youth about science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) concepts. However, little is known about the true effects on conceptual knowledge and associated attitudes. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the shortterm effects of a series of five-day summer robotics/geospatial camps held in Nebraska. The study was conducted at six diverse locations and consisted of a five-day 4-H camp experience. The study examined the experiences of 147 youth between the ages of 10 and 15. A pretestposttest quasi-experimental design …