Research & Publications

Natasha Wilkerson, Benjamin Janney, Rachelle Pedersen

2023 | Science Scope

Before dismissing the class each day, we use exit tickets. These brief questions are an opportunity to assess individuals on the depth and accuracy of learning. For instance, to conclude today’s lesson, we ask each student to respond to the following:“Despite looking ‘clean,’what pieces of evidence support the idea that the air around us is full of tiny particles? Why don’t we often see these particles?” See Assessment in Supplemental Materials for additional questions and targeted student responses that demonstrate mastery of content.

Natasha Wilkerson, Justin Wilkerson

2024 | American Society of Engineering Education

In an effort to engage underserved communities with engineering education, a STEM company and a university have partnered to offer STEM Family Nights to Title I campuses. A STEM Family Night is an evening of hands-on science, math, and engineering activities for students and families to complete together. These events generate excitement for STEM learning and pathways and build a school culture of STEM learning. In this session, we will share 3 low-prep and low-cost engineering lessons that target grades K - 8 and promote learning of engineering habits of mind and practices in an informal setting with families. The activities have been vetted by science teachers and implemented in over 100 STEM family events.

N. Wilkerson, J.K. Olson

2024 | American Society of Engineering Education Conference

Despite the growing emphasis on engineering in K-12 grades, persistently high dropout rates plague undergraduate engineering programs. Previous studies have shown that engineering activities can increase interest in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pathways. Less clear is whether pre-college engineering instruction also contributes to students’ success in engineering career pathways by adequately preparing students for demanding STEM pathways. To support the development of authentic and rigorous engineering learning in K-12 settings, this mixed methods study seeks to understand engineering faculty’s views on incorporating engineering in K-12 settings, focusing on its impact on prospective undergraduate engineering students and the general student population. Employing a convergent mixed methods approach, this study gathered and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data concurrently but independently before merging them to explore the research questions…

N. Wilkerson, J.K. Olson, K. Rambo-Hernandez, R. Pedersen

2024 ASEE Conference

This research paper is a systematic literature review of pre-college engineering education that includes practitioner and research articles at the middle school level from 2012-2022. The inclusion of engineering in the Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS, 2013) and the release of the Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning (FPEL) developed in partnership with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE & AE3, 2020) provide different approaches to the inclusion of engineering in K-12 settings. In order to provide more clarity on the learning goals for engineering education, this paper uses a directed content analysis design to identify the alignment of research and practitioner articles to the learning goals promoted in the NGSS (2013) and FPEL (2020). With a focus on formal middle school classrooms in the United States, this study addresses the following research questions: 1) What are the …

Natasha Wilkerson, Daniel J. De Jesús, Kelli Adam

2023 | IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference

This study explores the restrictions and barriers to STEM education, which has grown in popularity due to its focus on real-world problem-solving and educating students for 21st-century issues. Financial resources, curriculum standards, time, shortage of qualified teachers, lack of professional development opportunities, low student motivation, weak connections with individual learners, poor facilities, and lack of hands-on experiences are all constraints, according to studies. STEM classrooms face time constraints for instruction, high-stakes assessments, experiments, and projects. The study examines how these constraints affect instruction and if time is a grade-level constraint. This study also emphasizes the necessity for student-centered training that integrates grade-level knowledge from other disciplines, notably mathematics, into STEM activities. The study collected and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data …

J.K. Olson, N. Wilkerson, B. Janney

2022 | Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health

The project Supporting Health-Transportation Education in Schools is part of CARTEEH’s Education Workforce Development efforts. The mission is to create a synergistic relationship between the center’s research program and educational efforts and outputs to (a) prepare future and current decision-makers in transportation and public health fields; (b) educate K–12, college, and university students and the public on the impact of transportation emissions on human health; and (c) increase interest and access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career pathways. In support of this mission, the team developed the curriculum unit “What’s In Our Air?” for grades 5–8. The lessons were piloted during 10 outreach events in Brazos Valley, reaching 1,775 students and families. The lessons are now available on the CARTEEH website, and as of September 2023, 512 educators from around the world have downloaded the classroom lessons, reaching an estimated 59,000 elementary and middle school students…

N. Wilkerson

2023 | ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Despite widespread efforts to increase access to STEM, women and racial minorities continue to be underrepresented in these fields. One explanation is that interest in STEM has been shown to decrease starting in early grades. To counteract this decline in interest, researchers have found a link between consistent engagement in out-of-school time (OST) STEM programs with an improved interest in STEM. However, attendance is often sporadic, and the duration of programming varies widely. Further investigation is needed on the relationship between exposure to afterschool STEM as a predictor of interest in STEM. Building on previous research on OST programs and STEM interest, this quantitative study looks to address the gap by exploring the relationship between frequency of attendance on interest in STEM for underrepresented groups…

N. Wilkerson

2021 | MS Dissertation at Texas A&M University

Pre-college engineering education is gaining popularity, and most state science standards now include engineering in some capacity. However, others are calling for engineering as a separate discipline. The 2020 Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning acts as a foundational document that outlines concepts, practices, and habits of mind for promoting engineering literacy in all students. This study investigates a subset of these to determine their presence during an informal engineering program that included weekly engineering design challenges conducted through distance learning…