Technology

Solarizing Your School: Engineering Design in Students’ Authentic Epistemic Practices of Adopting Renewable Energy

Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students (N = 38) participated in the Solarizing Your School curriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design.

Author/Presenter

Hengtao Tang

Shiyan Jiang

Charles Xie

Year
2025
Short Description

Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students participated in the Solarizing Your School curriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design.

Solarizing Your School: Engineering Design in Students’ Authentic Epistemic Practices of Adopting Renewable Energy

Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students (N = 38) participated in the Solarizing Your School curriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design.

Author/Presenter

Hengtao Tang

Shiyan Jiang

Charles Xie

Year
2025
Short Description

Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students participated in the Solarizing Your School curriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design.

The Role of Discrimination and Barriers in the Perceptions of Adolescents With and Without Disabilities of STEM Classes and Jobs

In STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, people with disabilities are underrepresented. This study aimed to determine what barriers might prevent students with and without disabilities from pursuing STEM careers. Differences in students’ interest in enrolling in advanced STEM courses and having a STEM career were evaluated in a sample of 438 students with (24.9%) and without disabilities (Mage = 15.09, SD = .82) recruited from public high schools in Southeastern United States.

Author/Presenter

Kelly Lynn Mulvey

Jacqueline Cerda-Smith

Angelina Joy

Martha Batul

Emine Ozturk

Year
2025
Short Description

In STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, people with disabilities are underrepresented. This study aimed to determine what barriers might prevent students with and without disabilities from pursuing STEM careers.

“It Would Be Cool to Make Up My Own Activities”: Youth Voice in STEM Teaching and Learning

Fostering youth voice means supporting young people in expressing their ideas, taking ownership of their learning, and engaging with their communities in meaningful and impactful ways. Out-of-school-time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs have long provided these opportunities, empowering youth to drive their learning forward and see themselves as active contributors to the world around them.

Author/Presenter

Victoria Oliveira

Virginia Andrews

Patricia J. Allen

Gil G. Noam

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

For the promotion of youth voice to be successful, out-of-school-time (OST) program facilitators and classroom teachers need a common understanding of what quality looks and sounds like and support for implementing higher-quality instructional strategies. For well over a decade, the Dimensions of Success (DoS) observation system has provided such support in OST settings and, more recently, in middle-grade classrooms. In this article, we first demonstrate how DoS defines quality Youth Voice in OST and classroom settings through four vignettes based on observations of grade 5–8 classrooms and OST program observations, then provide strategies for educators to promote higher-quality Youth Voice by building on youth ideas and encouraging decision-making that drives their STEM learning forward.