Supporting Engagement of Elementary School-Aged Children in STEM
We are the Elementary School outreach group. With biology professors Purdy and Jeong, we are designing lesson plans for activities aimed at elementary school students with the goals of fostering enthusiasm for STEM from an early age and encouraging the participation of girls and people of color, who are traditionally underrepresented, in STEM. Through hands-on activities, we aim to show the students that science is fun and relevant, and that anyone can be a scientist. Our process has involved researching STEM learning and attitudes in elementary-aged children, and designing lesson plans and discussion questions for students. What’s left to do is test-run our lesson plans on college students and then finally visit classrooms to conduct our lesson plans.
We have attached our poster summarizing our goals and activities, as well as the lesson plans for the various projects.