The High School Enterprise (HSE) project builds on earlier successes with college students and extends that strategy to eight high schools through an after-school program. The project establishes and assesses a model which uses students from grades 9-12 organized into active, applied STEM learning communities focused on client needs. HSE teams participate in "virtual" companies that provide technical services to actual clients and develop products intended for ultimate distribution through the marketplace. HSE team projects are STEM-based with an emphasis on ICT.
The program includes eight high schools in Michigan and Puerto Rico that are located in rural, suburban, and inner city communities that have diverse characteristics (all income ranges, high populations of students from underrepresented groups). Deliverables include an HSE model and training manual adaptable by high schools nationally and knowledge about why HSE as an after-school intervention activity has the impact that it does with the targeted student groups in the participating high schools. The proposal team is partnering with ASME, which provides built-in connections with local university student chapters and design teams, to examine one possible model for HSE scale-up. In addition, the team is developing a model for establishing the local sustainable funding that is required to prevent participating high schools from incurring any substantial costs.
(HSE) establishes teams of secondary students (roughly 6-20 per team) who work on long-term STEM projects under the guidance of a teacher-coach who is specially instructed to implement this learning experience. Most instances operate as afterschool activities and teacher-coaches are paid for their coaching and mentorship just as those who direct afterschool athletics. A few teams run as in-curricular classes. HSE is long-term project-based learning that uses student/teacher selected projects. Depending on implementation, students participate in HSE for one or more years. Teams are supported by engineering units at a local university, have access to expertise and mentoring from industry professionals, and are given a budget for project expenses. Each spring, secondary students showcase their project work alongside college students at a Michigan Tech exposition. Following HSE experiences, students demonstrate proficiency in applied workforce skills, are more disposed to enter STEM careers, and are better prepared to undertake the needed training/education. The merit of HSE resides in its ability to implement successful team-structured, long-term project-based learning across a broad spectrum of secondary institution types. Project-based learning is a proven pedagogy that better promotes both cognitive and metacognitive learning than traditional instruction, but it is difficult for high school teachers to implement. HSE has served a large number of ethnic minority (>50%) and female (~35%) students, though the ethnic diversity of any given team is usually low (secondary schools remain among the most segregated of institutions). HSE easily adapts to a mode that best works in the host institution and serves the students as the educators of the school see fit. This flexibility is evident in the types of institutions that have successfully hosted HSE: alternative high schools (institutions that serve as a last resort in public education when traditional education does not work for a student); magnet schools; charter schools; rural schools; traditional urban public high schools; an Upward Bound program (a college preparatory program that serves at-risk, low-income and first-generation students from many schools); a remedial program that houses grossly underprepared secondary-aged students in a middle school (Moore STEP Academy, Lawrenceville, GA); and schools that employ Project Lead the Way (PLTW). HSE is flexible enough to facilitate other STEM programs (e.g., PLTW) and to work with gifted students in highly structured institutions such as magnet and technical high schools. Yet, HSE is structured enough to offer true implementation assistance to schools that serve at-risk students and that may lack the resources to establish a formal project-based STEM learning initiative on their own. It is not surprising that an intervention to promote STEM works with students who are already college and STEM bound. But, it is notable that that same STEM intervention works for students who are so at risk that they are enrolled in alternate high schools or in remedial programs. Because HSE is easily adaptable and does work across all types of institutions, its impact reaches a much broader audience than most STEM interventions. The following excerpts from the external evaluators’ summative report are their conclusions regarding the effects of HSE on participating students: Based on an analysis of student surveys, many technology skills improved as a result of their participation in HSE, including use of the Internet, social networking, video calling/conferencing, word processing, and PowerPoint software. Improvement of some workplace skills increased the longer a student participated in the HSE program, such as analyzing information, speaking well in front of groups, and writing about ideas so others can understand them. Students indicated increased use of technology, including summarizing and analyzing data using a database or spreadsheet, using mathematics to make models about issues and problems, designing interactive computer games, and programming robots using computer software. In an end-of-school year survey, students were asked to identify the best aspects of doing their HSEprojects. Categories of responses included HSE was seen as a positive learning experience; HSE is an opportunity to develop work skills; HSE combines learning and fun, learning and teamwork, teamwork and communications, learning and creativity. Multi-Dimensional Learning. Overall, the HSE program is an effective way to actively engage students in their own learning. Learning is clearly multi-dimensional. The long-term team projects require students to plan, make decisions, problem-solve, improve technology skills, increase/improve their subject matter knowledge related to their projects, learn to work in a team (and hone associated teamwork skills), and develop effective communications skills. Opportunity to Learn. HSE provides opportunities to learn knowledge, skills, and attitudes in new ways. The hands-on, real-world long-term projects offer a venue for authentic learning not often available to students through their traditional high school course work. Teachers serve as facilitators rather than directors of activities. Thus students must take ownership in their learning, as well as take responsibility for the success of the team.
