Collaborative Research: Leveraging the Collective Strengths of e4usa and FIRST for Greater Impact on the Future Engineering Workforce (e4usa+FIRST)

Industry demands for highly trained science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals are growing at a rate not supported by current post-secondary student enrollments. Efforts have been made primarily in isolation at the pre-college level to educate and excite students about possible careers in STEM. The e4usa+FIRST project is an unprecedented effort that establishes a partnership between two existing programs - Engineering for US All (e4usa) and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) - in an effort to leverage collective strengths toward furthering the democratization of engineering education.

This collaborative effort prepares teachers to educate, inform, and excite youth about careers in engineering for greater overall impact on the future engineering workforce.

The project’s overarching goal is to design and test a myriad of blended e4usa and FIRST models to be implemented within underserved communities that have been unable to offer or maintain engineering experiences at their schools. Targeting unserved communities is designed to intentionally expand the reach and impact of these two programs. The overarching goal is accompanied by four objectives: 1) establish blended e4usa+FIRST models for high schools in underserved communities, 2) prepare teachers and schools to implement an e4usa+FIRST model, 3) link teachers with mentors, universities, and industry, and 4) explore program scalability and sustainability through innovative business models and technological tools.

The overall effort entails a kick-off workshop, multiple development sprints, summer professional development, academic year community of practice, mentorship, university and industry partnerships, and scalability and sustainability initiatives. Implementation will be evaluated using teacher interviews, student focus groups, classroom observations, and surveys.

Additional efforts exploring mechanisms to support scalability, sustainability, and incorporation of new schools into the engineering education ecosystem are intended to increase the longevity and overall impact of the e4usa+FIRST program. This effort provides the foundation for testing the likelihood of the collaboration’s future success, specifically within underserved communities.

The blended approach has the potential to contribute greatly to recruitment and retention of a more diverse future engineering workforce, while demonstrating the value of such efforts to university and industry partners. The result will be a better educated citizenship with a growing interest in engineering and engineering careers.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.