Trinity Walton Club: What is its Potential for Promoting Interest in STEM?

Abstract

Concerns are growing in many countries, including Ireland, regarding an inadequate number of graduates to meet workforce needs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. These graduate deficiencies are the result of low student uptake of STEM subjects and courses at post-primary and tertiary level education. Low uptake is partly a consequence of negative student attitudes towards STEM. Many students are losing interest in STEM at an early age due to an inability to see any relevance in their everyday lives. In light of such concerns, a Saturday afternoon club entitled "Trinity Walton Club" (TWC) was established in Trinity College Dublin with the purpose of uniting like-minded students to express, shape, inform and grow their interest in STEM. This club attempted to 'bring STEM to life' through thought provoking content, real world problems, contextualised analogies and projects. This paper describes the background to the TWC, reviews the literature around promoting student interest in STEM and examines initial feedback from participants in the pilot year of the club. The findings of this preliminary study indicate that the TWC has the potential to promote interest in STEM. Many of the recommendations from the literature review about promoting interest in STEM were referred to by participants in their responses.

Effects of STEM Education Seminars on Teachers in the Schools of North Cyprus

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Diversity in STEM: A Look at STEM Choices Amongst Black and Latinx High School Students

“…For starters, STEM educators are responsible for advertising their courses to students to increase program enrollment. Consequently, teachers need to comprehend the significance of promoting their practices and make a conscious effort to endorse their courses (Prendergast et al, 2018). Since marketing is vital in increasing student enrollment into STEM courses, teachers must have a vast knowledge of STEM concepts to enhance marketing strategies for Blacks and Latinx students.…”

“…When teachers present STEM materials using gender and racial relevant contexts, the results are encouraging. Using these materials, students obtain greater respect for the content area because it illustrates the subject value and makes STEM more personally relevant to the students (Prendergast et al, 2018). As a result of effective diversified marketing strategies, classrooms of teachers who market well will have student enrollments that reflect the demographics of the school they teach instead of the traditional demographics seen within the field.…”

“…Achievement data consistently depicts the general scores of students from historically minoritized groups such as Blacks and Latinx students, being suspiciously lower than White students. Koon & Davie (2019) found that Black students are disproportionately less successful in math and science courses, and that achievement gaps are evident with the students from dual-language families (Prendergast et al, 2018) are compared to their White counterparts. These academic performances of Black and Latinx students are unsurprisingly a result of long standing inequitable and historical practices of subtractive schooling experiences.…”