The Discover STEM-Generation Innovation project at Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC) is based on a prior NSF-supported project. OCTC is developing a comprehensive recruitment and retention model to increase the number of students, particularly underrepresented groups including females, minorities, and disabled populations, exposed to STEM education and careers, and is promoting technician education in Kentucky. The current project is a scale-up project. STEM pathways in advanced manufacturing, mechatronics, engineering, biotechnology, and information technology are being developed throughout Kentucky by collaborating with five mentee sites located at two-year colleges across the state. Middle and high school students are attracted to STEM activities using clubs, academies and robotic competitions with the intent that at least 70% of these students will transition to enrollment in college. Professional development offerings for 200 teachers expose them to the importance of technician education and help them to teach and support the K-12 students. Industry involvement in the professional development efforts for faculty and teachers is an important added feature. Evaluative activities are informing both the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) and the community college STEM system at large about the important features essential to fidelity of implementation and quality scale-up efforts.
was a project grant awarded to Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) in September 2011. The project's overall scope was to enhance/develop Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education across the state of Kentucky. This was accomplished by developing a mentor team at OCTC that worked in conjunction with five partner Kentucky Community and Technical Colleges, which included Hazard Community and Technical College, Maysville Community and Technical College, Henderson Community College, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, and Gateway Community and Technical College. Each of the five parters were asked to identify up to two mentees at each college to work on the project. The method of delivery for STEM education was robotics, which was identified by OCTC and the partner colleges prior to submitting for the grant project. Robotics allowed OCTC and the partners to serve a wide range by serving students from 9 - 18 years old. 1,519 elementary, middle, and high school students throughout Kentucky were exposed to these hands-on learning opportunities including participation in Discover STEM clubs, FIRST Robotic teams, and summer academies upon the conclusion of the grant project on August 31, 2014. One statistic that really stood out in the project was that 64% of these students were from an underrepresented population. Professional Development also was a key area of focus for the project. Over the course of the three-year project, 239 K-12 teachers were exposed to the importance of STEM training. These teachers attended hands-on professional development trainings at OCTC or one of the partner colleges. This allowed the teachers to see first-hand the same struggles and successes that their very own students would experience working with robotics. The teachers also saw opportunities to enhance their current content specific area. Upon completion of the professional development, many of these teachers would took what they learned and brought it back to their students. Every teacher that attended training was given the opportunity to develop a Discover STEM club or robotics team. These teams were supported with robotic materials, registration fees, support from the mentee partner closest to their particular school, and support/guidance from the mentor at OCTC. This was especially vital in year one. At that time, OCTC was actually training the trainer (mentee partner) and teams were ready to develop at the grant's inception. A total of 107 teams were developed by the conclusion of the grant. The robotic teams would attend age-appropriate competitions to give them further opportunities to enhance their STEM skills. The 9 - 14 year old students would attend FIRST Lego League (FLL) competitions and the 14 - 18 year old students would attend FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) competitions. The competitions allowed the students to constantly enhance their teamwork, troubleshooting, communication, community involvement, and networking skills all at the same time, in the same place, with like-minded students. The students were exposed to business and industry professionals who served as sponsors, judges, and volunteers at these events. The teams were very successful whether they received a trophy or advanced to another competition. How did we know this? The students, teachers, judges, and volunteers were all still smiling at the end of the day! While not every FLL team advanced to new competitions, some did advance from Regionals to State Championships, allowing them to continue to showcase their skills. FTC teams were very successful too. During the final year of the project grant, three FTC teams advanced from the Kentucky FTC Championship to the South Super-Regional in San Antonio, Texas. Of those three teams, one advanced to the FTC Robotic Championships in St. Louis, Missouri in April 2014. In conclusion, the Discover STEM: Generation Innovation project was very successful. The project allowed a small group of faculty and staff from six KCTCS colleges to share the passion they have for STEM education with the communities they serve. It is amazing to look back at the grant's conclusion and see many of the efforts and teams being sustained at the partner sites. This continues to support the statement that there was value added at the schools that developed these teams. As the sun sets on this project the ripple effect keeps going from the mentors-mentees-teachers-students-new students through peer mentorship.
