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Heath Tims, Galen Turner, Don Schillinger

GEAR UP: Teaching Engineering, Science, and Mathematics to Junior High and High School Students through the use of K’Nex Bridges. Heath Tims, Galen Turner, Don Schillinger. Background Project Description Implementation Assessment Observations Questions. Background:.

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Heath Tims, Galen Turner, Don Schillinger

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  1. GEAR UP: Teaching Engineering, Science, and Mathematics to Junior High and High School Students through the use of K’Nex Bridges Heath Tims, Galen Turner, Don Schillinger

  2. Background • Project Description • Implementation • Assessment • Observations • Questions

  3. Background: • Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP)  • efforts focus on schools where more than 50% of the student population is eligible for free or reduced lunch • Students in the selected districts were judged to have above-average needs, based on four criteria: • 59% or more of the district's students are eligible for free or reduced lunch • district's composite ACT score is 19.6 or lower • percentage of first-time college freshmen is 42.7% or lower • percentage of freshmen requiring remedial courses is 45.6% or higher

  4. GEAR UP Summer Camp: • Goal: to expose junior high and high school students from under-performing schools to mathematics, science, engineering • 41 junior high and 54 high school students • (93.6%) were from under-represented groups.

  5. Building Bridges to the Future : • The camp utilized K’Nex Bridges as a means for providing a hands-on learning experience. • serves as a good application of algebra and trig • very hands-onand intuitive • gives an excellent introduction to engineering design • leads to a designcompetition. • In addition to the math and science explorations, students participated in leadership development activities and individualizedtutoring sessions based on results of a pre-test administered on arrival to camp.

  6. 5 E Learning Cycle Model:

  7. Daily Topics:

  8. Jr High Pre / Post Test:

  9. High School Pre / Post Test:

  10. Jr High Observations: • Junior high students were actively engaged and had a desire to continue evaluating their bridge designs • The test scores reflect this observation • mathematics had an average increase of 1.68 or (11.2%), • science had an average increase of 1.35 or (13.5%) • overall increase of 3.4 or (8.6%). • This observation of active engagement of the students is validated by the student’s evaluations • 94.5% of the Junior High students responded that they would attend the camp the following year • 100% responded that they would recommend Building Bridges to the Future to a friend.

  11. High School Observations: • High school students had a harder time staying engaged • Instructors anticipated that this group would not show as much improvement as a whole • The test scores reveal minimal overall statistical improvement for the High School students • mathematics had a minimal increase of 0.6 or (4%) • science had an average decrease that can be considered negligible • overall scores showed a negligible change (0.02 increase or 0.2%). • This observation of active engagement of the high school students is validated by the student’s evaluations • 70% of the High School students responded that they would attend the camp the following year • 82% responded that they would recommend to a friend.

  12. Questions ?

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