Welcome to EMERGEinSTEM.  I am interested in motivating students from grades 4-12 onto the STEM pathway to college and beyond.  Have you seen how exposure to STEM career opportunities help motivate students to enter STEM?  How young are the students when they latch on to STEM?  Do teachers, administrators, parents know enough to educate students about the "possibilities" for exciting, challenging, and usually rewarding jobs in STEM?  Do "out-of-school" activities make the difference?  or is it mostly from in-school education that brings a student into STEM?  All of these questions and more are explored in EMERGEinSTEM which is about 16 months old, and will be completed after 24 months (Dec 2019).

Give me any feedback you can think of.  Thanks.  Greg Monty

In looking at the variety of experiences that you're exploring as mechanisms for helping students become more aware of or interested in STEM careers, do you have any hypotheses about which activities might foster greater awareness versus which ones might lead to increased interest (i.e., Do some activities result in different outcomes than others?). I was also curious about the LearningBlade interactive and whether that interface is being paired with what students are doing during the Energy Day event or whether they are separate initiatives with similar goals.

Given the prevalence of out-of-school or after-school "STEM Days" or "STEM Fairs" that many schools do know, I often wonder about the effectiveness of those experiences on student's career awareness. It is likely that effectiveness is dependent on the particular experiences and interactions a student has at these events, which can vary widely from table to table, trailer to trailer, or exhibitor to exhibitor. Are there learnings or findings from your work that may inform organizers of such events to increase the potential for impact? Are there conditions that you are identifying that may lead to more systemic partnerships with a school or district to bring current STEM career activities or active STEM learning into the classroom curriculum?

Thanks for sharing your project! I love the multi-pronged approach in the project. I'm curious how the website has been used. What was the purpose behind its design? How has the website equipped the community? I have similar questions about the software as well. How does Learning Blade engage students in the various career paths? 

In my own work, I've struggled with how we move beyond exposure to sustaining participation. How have you thought about this in your own work? In other words, exposure may be great for sparking interest, but how does that interest translate into actual pursuit of career? Is that the goal? I'd love to hear your team's thoughts on this. 

Thanks for sharing! It's really interesting to think about bringing partners on to projects like this to build support networks that can connect youth, schools, out-of-school programs, universities, and industry. Can you say a bit more about the challenges you've faced in getting others on board? The reluctance from teachers is understandable. Have you tried reaching out to industry partners? If so, what are some of their thoughts/concerns?

Thanks for sharing this information -- will the software/curriculum component you are suing to expose students to STEM careers and introduce them to fields and concepts be available to other researchers and school systems?  Also, do your pre/post surveys provide any insight into how long the "buzz" lasts, meaning the long term impact of STEM exposure interventions like this?