PROJECT DREAM: Diversity Recruited into Engineering through Advanced Making

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to provide an effective, accessible, and practical solution for increasing student success rates and improving the representation of students historically under-represented in STEM and the engineering workforce. The recruitment and retention of diverse students in engineering professions remain a significant challenge in the United States. Marymount University will address this challenge by 1) recruiting students into a new engineering program through a two-week summer program and a dual-enrollment engineering course for District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) students and 2) creating a year-long introductory engineering course using low-cost makerspace technologies (such as 3D printers) to improve foundational engineering skills and develop solutions to problems impacting their community. This project will provide a framework for any educational institution for in-demand engineering skills, improve engagement and foundational engineering skills to underprepared students and increase collaborations between students and their communities.In this project, Marymount University hopes to 1) recruit students historically underrepresented in STEM into a new engineering program and 2) develop, implement, and evaluate a year-long foundational engineering course using evidence-based pedagogical methods known to effectively meet the unique needs for increasing student success rates thus improving representation in the engineering workforce. This project will support dual enrollment and a two-week summer “Maker Skills in Engineering” bridge program for DCPS students to increase recruitment and their experience in foundational and in-demand engineering skills using accessible digital fabrication technologies. The year-long foundational engineering course will utilize a project-based curriculum using accessible digital fabrication technologies to augment students' foundational engineering framework and to provide opportunities for students to gain modern engineering skills. The modest cost of digital fabrication technologies being utilized maximize the potential for sharing and expanding the program to any educational institution while also allowing students to develop solutions to problems impacting their communities. The project will further provide a model for creating stronger collaborations between universities and their communities, increase STEM opportunities for UR in STEM students through dual-enrollment and bridge programs and engage and retain students in STEM upon matriculation. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.