u I Micron p ilot p rogram Suppor T STe M eD u CATI o N in Three Idaho Communities

By Tara Roberts

University of Idaho’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – or STEM – Education Research Initiative has launched innovative programs in three Idaho communities to support student academic success and increase interest in STEM education.

The programs, which began last summer, are part of a five-year project funded by a $1.2 million Micron Foundation gift.

In Jerome, a three-day summer camp for preschool Head Start students focused on science. In Post Falls, online resources assist parents in navigating techniques used in the new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. In Lewiston, students are competing for prizes for the best student-produced, informative YouTube videos that feature community members who have STEM-related jobs.

The innovation projects reflect the mid-point of the Micron STEM Initiative. The project’s early research included focus groups with parents, teachers and community members in 12 Idaho counties, followed by telephone surveys. Researchers also surveyed fourth, seventh and tenth graders, their parents and teachers statewide.

“The world is facing complex problems that require a STEM-literate citizenry,” said Susan Stauffer, a UI research associate with the Micron STEM Initiative. “With growing populations and limited resources, people need to make informed decisions in their personal lives and in the voting booth on issues from the environment to medicine.”

The innovative projects are based on findings from the focus groups and surveys. While the results show strong statewide support for increased public education funding and STEM education efforts, Idahoans revealed conflicting attitudes about their levels of trust in science and scientists.

Students’ responses showed a decline in positive attitudes toward and experiences with math and science between seventh and tenth grade, with girls reporting a more dramatic decrease than boys. Also, Hispanic students in seventh and tenth grades were statistically less likely to have positive experiences with and hold positive attitudes toward math and science.

In Kootenai County — the site of the Post Falls project — 49 percent of parents indicated that their own level of math and science knowledge made it challenging to assist their children with homework. Instructional videos target two of the Common Core mathematical practices, giving parents strategies to support their children as they approach challenging math problems.

Micron + STEM

Jerome’s three-day bilingual summer science camp reflects the community’s growing Hispanic population. The camp also responds to survey findings that revealed parents in Jerome strongly support their children’s education but a majority, 72 percent, described difficulty with helping their children in school, given their own math and science knowledge.

The YouTube video campaign in Lewiston also is informed by survey findings from Nez Perce County where a third of parents said they were unsure of what classes a student should take to be successful in college. The studentproduced videos will inform parents, students and community members about both college and career preparation by featuring the educational and career paths of local STEM professionals.

Corinne Mantle-Bromley, UI’s dean of the College of Education and codirector of the Micron STEM Initiative, said the findings from these pilot projects will help researchers better understand the problems as well as the most promising next steps for improvement.

“The hope certainly is that the Micron-funded research leads to changes across the state that lead to improved access to STEM fields. With increased interest in the STEM fields, additional funding is gained where we can do major state projects,” Mantle-Bromley said. “Because of the groundbreaking research, we now have a baseline for the state; we know a lot about the state landscape that we didn’t know earlier.”

For more information on the U-Idaho Micron STEM Education Research Initiative and findings, visit uidaho.edu/research/stem/micronstemed.