Investigating the Impact of Informal Engineering Education on Middle School Girls' Engineering Identity Development

Book excerpt: As the world grows increasingly more reliant on technology, there have been repeated calls for more, and more diverse, engineers, along with other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals. From these calls has risen an increased focus on engineering in pre-college education, both in formal and informal learning settings. Along with this increased focus came a corresponding increase in research regarding pre-college engineering education. However, informal engineering experiences are under-studied when compared to formal engineering experiences. This manuscript-style dissertation seeks to provide insight into the literature available about pre-college engineering education and the impact and implications for practice of one informal engineering experience, a Girl Scout engineering badge, on middle schoolers’ engineering identity development. To begin my work, I conducted a systematic literature review. Following established systematic literature review methods, I gathered and synthesized a small body of literature regarding the impact of informal engineering experiences on pre-college students’ engineering identity development. The synthesis revealed that informal experiences appear to have a positive impact on participant’s engineering identity, however, little is known about how the impact may vary by program or participant characteristics. Using these results, directions and recommendations for future research was proposed. For the informal engineering experience, two Girl Scout troops, one which met completely online and one which met in a hybrid setting, completed a Girl Scout engineering badge. Fifteen participants completed pre- and post-interviews, and observations of participants were conducted during the badge activities. In addition, participants completed the Draw-an-Engineer Test before the pre-interview and a modified version of the Draw-an-Engineer Test before the post-interview. Data analysis indicated that there was some growth in both engineering identity and engineering knowledge following the engineering badge experience. However, the impact on engineering identity varied between the two settings (hybrid and online), with participants in the online troop slightly more likely to indicate engineering identity growth. Finally, based on participant outcomes and my experiences with transitioning the in-person badge material into a virtual environment, I generated four concrete recommendations for practitioners who wish to conduct virtual informal engineering experiences. Those recommendations are: 1.) Craft your learning environment to reduce participant barriers, 2.) Be flexible and adapt activities as needed, 3.) Cultivate an environment where struggle and failure are okay, and 4.) Leverage your network and build relationships with the organizations you wish to partner with. Additionally, future work to further develop these recommendations was proposed. These three manuscripts come together to provide insight into engineering identity development through an under-studied area of pre-college engineering education: informal experiences. Through my work, I identified gaps in the literature and opportunities for future work, provided insight into the impact that a Girl Scout engineering badge had on participants, and developed recommendations for practice. Particularly, my work informs how the engineering education field may be able to support engineering identity development in girls, which may ultimately influence women’s participation in the engineering field.