Abstract:

In the United States a new program is being scaled across the country to engage high school students in activities that open pathways to STEM learning and careers. This program began in 2015 in Alabama and by 2025 will be replicated in 10 locations. In the last two summers, we served 500 students from 66 high schools via four different residential summer academies housed on university campuses providing lab and on-site STEM experiences with 18 industry partners.

The Academy seeks to increase students’ awareness of local high-paying, in-demand STEM career opportunities and their understanding about what it takes to secure these jobs. In 2023, the focus was on advanced manufacturing industries and students designed, built, and tested remote-controlled, multipurpose robots that completed several missions, each with increasing complexity.

The JROTC STEM Leadership Academy engaged high school students in developing and valuing skills in teamwork, communication, and leadership needed to be successful contributors and collaborators. Each summer the curriculum rotates among three STEM design challenges. Summer 2023, students completed the STEM-on-the Ground curriculum applying STEM concepts of simple and complex machines, gear rations, inverse relationships, and the engineering design process during their tea design challenges. Pre and post assessments (N=500) results indicated statistically significant gains in STEM content knowledge overall, with gains in mathematics and science being greatest.

To raise students’ awareness of how STEM is used in the manufacturing industry, the 2023 academies arranged visits to 18 industries, including Lockheed Martin, Delta Airlines, Panasonic, General Atomics, and SSAB Steel. Students heard from human resources personnel about hiring requirements, key traits needed, training programs offered, and salaries of local high-demand jobs from technicians to engineers. And during the academies, students resided on college campuses, giving them a taste of university life as well as working in their labs and conference spaces.

Based on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected across all sites, the 2023 academies increased students’ awareness and interest in local STEM career opportunities and increased their confidence in being able to enter a STEM career field. Students made gains in mathematics, science, and engineering knowledge and in experience in working with technology, which increased the likelihood they will succeed in STEM courses and careers. Students also gained skills in teamwork, leadership, communication, and other 21st century workforce skills and experienced growth in social skills, courage, and personal responsibility.

The model for this Academy was implemented at camps Alabama, California, and Georgia in 2023 and will extend to Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas in the next two years. This conference session will review the quantitative and qualitative data with respect to students’ learning gains and field experiences; include data collected with the program leadership team, educators, and industry partners across all sites, as well as share next steps for the academies.

Acknowledgement:
The JROTC STEM Leadership Academy scale up program is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense STEM initiative (Award Number HQ0034210009).

Keywords:

STEM education, careers, workforce development, high school students.