Abstract
Providing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) experiences to middle and high school students outside of traditional classroom settings is critical in preparing learners to be literate in these fields. At the same time, providing graduate students in science and mathematics with independent pedagogical opportunities that prepare them to effectively teach and communicate STEM subjects to the general public are exceedingly rare. Here, we present the Foundations in Science and Mathematics program (FSM), a rapidly growing summer STEM educational program operated entirely by graduate students at Indiana University, Bloomington, that seeks to achieve both of these goals. First, we detail the organization and scope of FSM, the extent to which it grew since its founding in 2011, and the general aims and design of its courses. Second, we address the demographic composition of the program, and evaluate its pedagogical success through learning evaluations and student surveys that gauge student academic improvement and course satisfaction, respectively. Overall, we find that FSM significantly increased student learning and that courses were given favorable reviews by students. Finally, we discuss the logistical operation of FSM, with the goal of assisting motivated graduate students in developing similar programs at other academic institutions. In combination, we find that FSM was highly successful at achieving its goals of enhancing student learning and promoting effective pedagogy among graduate students, and we encourage other institutions to establish similar programs in their own academic communities.
Highlights
Though access to a high-quality science and mathematics education is widely sought after, providing students with such educational opportunities outside the classroom can be a major challenge, as many existing opportunities are cost-prohibitive or regionally unavailable (Allen & Chavkin, 2004; Cook et al, 2015)
While graduate students may serve as teaching assistants, these appointments are often limited in scope, providing few or no opportunities for independent instruction or curriculum development (Davis and Kring, 2001; Cherrstrom et al, 2017)
This paper describes a program that attempts to address the needs of both groups to a substantial degree, providing secondary students affordable enrichment in the sciences and mathematics, while giving graduate students more substantial and autonomous opportunities for teaching and curriculum development
Summary
Though access to a high-quality science and mathematics education is widely sought after, providing students with such educational opportunities outside the classroom can be a major challenge, as many existing opportunities are cost-prohibitive or regionally unavailable (Allen & Chavkin, 2004; Cook et al, 2015). Universities can play a unique role in filling this void in their communities, as science and mathematics departments possess intellectual and material resources otherwise unavailable to local K-12 schools, and graduate students are often eager to gain experience in teaching and pedagogy (Tanner and Allen, 2006; Reeves et al, 2018). While graduate students may serve as teaching assistants, these appointments are often limited in scope, providing few or no opportunities for independent instruction or curriculum development (Davis and Kring, 2001; Cherrstrom et al, 2017). Extant teaching opportunities often fail to sufficiently prepare graduate students to teach independently and develop effective curricula (Parker et al, 2015; Kim et al, 2017)
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