Maker Fridays: Engaging Rural and Underrepresented High School Students in Pre-Engineering Design and Creativity

The engineering field struggles to develop sufficient interest and sustained participation across underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural, Hispanic, or Native American origin. It is critical to foster interest in engineering during formative years when students are deciding career paths. Northeast Community College (Northeast) addressed the shortage of diverse students entering into engineering fields by developing a course to engage rural and underrepresented high school students in maker design and creativity and to determine best practices that attract and retain these students. The Maker Fridays pre-engineering course was part of the Fridays@Northeast program that targets high school seniors, offering them the opportunity to learn from College faculty using Northeast lab spaces and classrooms to earn college credit. Northeast augmented an existing by incorporating a maker design area at the South Sioux City and Norfolk campuses. There were three cohorts of high school students involved in the EAGER Maker project at Northeast Community College throughout its two-year duration (Fall 2018, Spring 2019, and Fall 2019). Among the three cohorts, twenty-one students were enrolled in the course with eleven students participating in the research component, resulting in a 52% participation rate. The Maker Fridays project was designed to engage rural and underrepresented high school students in maker design and creativity and determine best practices that attract and retain these students. Through the Maker Fridays project, high school students were provided with learning activities and career exploration that will help them understand engineering while earning them college credits that will lead right into a program of study upon high school graduation. The researchers worked with the instructor to collect baseline and relevant continuing data on student background, academic preparation, engineering perceptions, career interests, course engagement, and overall student experiences. This was accomplished through a combination of student assessments, recorded class sessions reviews, and in- person class visits. The intent of the research study was to create a theoretical explanation for the development of interest in engineering careers for students from underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural, Hispanic, or Native American origin. However, the failure of Northeast to meet enrollment goals resulted in insufficient sample sizes for theoretical development. Thus, we are only able to report descriptive characteristics and general thematic findings from this study. In order to protect participants’ confidentiality, we cannot make the deidentified dataset available through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan as originally planned. However, the tools developed for this study and related codebooks are available as appendices to this report. There is a continued need to increase the number and diversity of students who pursue and complete engineering degrees to meet current and future national workforce needs. The Maker Fridays project will impact Northeast\u27s rural revitalization efforts due to the significant regional workforce demand for engineers. A major emphasis of this project was the focused partnerships created by inviting college faculty, educational researchers, and industry partners to be genuine colleagues who co-create educational pathways that both excite and encourage students to consider careers in engineering. From the perspective of employers, the project engaged engineering companies in ways that are fundamentally more active than how these partners are typically engaged with higher education. This project not only informed Northeast\u27s program, but it also benefited the students directly by highlighting the ongoing workforce needs of the region\u27s rural employers. The Maker Fridays project was designed to dispel misconceptions and transform careers in engineering into a tangible and viable option for underrepresented students by engaging high school seniors in a college-level maker course. A student’s positive experience in science that is integrated with maker design and creativity has been found to increase enthusiasm and a belief in the ability to pursue a science career (Linder et al., 2002; Feinstein et al., 2016). The Maker Fridays project engaged rural high school students in maker design and creativity. The engineering field struggles to develop sufficient interest and sustained participation across underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural communities. Through the Maker Fridays project, high school students were provided with learning activities and career exploration that helped them understand engineering while earning college credits that will lead to an engineering program of study upon high school graduation. These experiences were offered early enough in their education to allow changes in their career path. Through activities targeted to a high school audience, the Maker Fridays project dispelled misconceptions and transformed careers in engineering into a tangible and viable option for rural students

Evaluating Count Outcomes in Synthesized Single-Case Designs with Multilevel Modeling: A Simulation Study

Complex statistical techniques such as multilevel modeling (MLM) ideally require substantial sample sizes in order to avoid assumption violations. Unfortunately, large between-subjects sample sizes can be impractical and, in some cases, impossible in real-world applications. The use of single-case designs (SCD) allow researchers to overcome this issue. The ability to handle non-normal outcomes appropriately in such single-case designs, however, remains unclear, especially when the outcome reflects recurrent event (count) data. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of MLM for evaluating recurrent event outcomes in synthesized single-case designs. More specifically, this study seeks to determine the effects of analysis and analytic design decisions when distributional assumptions also vary as a result of the count outcomes. The ability to properly model non-normal distributions in school-based or clinical research settings is critical for two reasons: (1) count data are one of the most prevalent outcomes used in common single-case designs, and (2) it is necessary to avoid biased point estimates and standard errors. Monte Carlosimulation was used to examine relative bias, mean square error, and confidence interval coverage rates across four simulation conditions: distributional assumption, degree of freedom methods, sample size, and time-series lengths, where the synthesis of two empirical data sets were utilized to represent the population parameters. As hypothesized, the Negative Binomial distribution performed better, in comparison to the normal distribution and Poisson distribution on relative bias, mean square error, and coverage. The Kenward-Roger and Satterthwaite degree of freedom methods resulted in coverage rates that were closer to the nominal .95 level than the between-within, residual, and containment methods. The results from the sample sizes and time-series lengths were less straightforward than the other conditions. The results from this study should be used to provide guidance for methodological decisions of synthesized single-case design research. However, researchers should consider their own purpose and research context prior to making methodological decisions, as a single analysis is insufficient for all applied situations. Adviser: James A. Bovair

Maker Fridays: Engaging Rural and Underrepresented High School Students in Pre-Engineering Design and Creativity

The engineering field struggles to develop sufficient interest and sustained participation across underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural, Hispanic, or Native American origin. It is critical to foster interest in engineering during formative years when students are deciding career paths. Northeast Community College (Northeast) addressed the shortage of diverse students entering into engineering fields by developing a course to engage rural and underrepresented high school students in maker design and creativity and to determine best practices that attract and retain these students. The Maker Fridays pre-engineering course was part of the Fridays@Northeast program that targets high school seniors, offering them the opportunity to learn from College faculty using Northeast lab spaces and classrooms to earn college credit. Northeast augmented an existing by incorporating a maker design area at the South Sioux City and Norfolk campuses. There were three cohorts of high school students involved in the EAGER Maker project at Northeast Community College throughout its two-year duration (Fall 2018, Spring 2019, and Fall 2019). Among the three cohorts, twenty-one students were enrolled in the course with eleven students participating in the research component, resulting in a 52% participation rate. The Maker Fridays project was designed to engage rural and underrepresented high school students in maker design and creativity and determine best practices that attract and retain these students. Through the Maker Fridays project, high school students were provided with learning activities and career exploration that will help them understand engineering while earning them college credits that will lead right into a program of study upon high school graduation. The researchers worked with the instructor to collect baseline and relevant continuing data on student background, academic preparation, engineering perceptions, career interests, course engagement, and overall student experiences. This was accomplished through a combination of student assessments, recorded class sessions reviews, and in- person class visits. The intent of the research study was to create a theoretical explanation for the development of interest in engineering careers for students from underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural, Hispanic, or Native American origin. However, the failure of Northeast to meet enrollment goals resulted in insufficient sample sizes for theoretical development. Thus, we are only able to report descriptive characteristics and general thematic findings from this study. In order to protect participants’ confidentiality, we cannot make the deidentified dataset available through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan as originally planned. However, the tools developed for this study and related codebooks are available as appendices to this report. There is a continued need to increase the number and diversity of students who pursue and complete engineering degrees to meet current and future national workforce needs. The Maker Fridays project will impact Northeast\u27s rural revitalization efforts due to the significant regional workforce demand for engineers. A major emphasis of this project was the focused partnerships created by inviting college faculty, educational researchers, and industry partners to be genuine colleagues who co-create educational pathways that both excite and encourage students to consider careers in engineering. From the perspective of employers, the project engaged engineering companies in ways that are fundamentally more active than how these partners are typically engaged with higher education. This project not only informed Northeast\u27s program, but it also benefited the students directly by highlighting the ongoing workforce needs of the region\u27s rural employers. The Maker Fridays project was designed to dispel misconceptions and transform careers in engineering into a tangible and viable option for underrepresented students by engaging high school seniors in a college-level maker course. A student’s positive experience in science that is integrated with maker design and creativity has been found to increase enthusiasm and a belief in the ability to pursue a science career (Linder et al., 2002; Feinstein et al., 2016). The Maker Fridays project engaged rural high school students in maker design and creativity. The engineering field struggles to develop sufficient interest and sustained participation across underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural communities. Through the Maker Fridays project, high school students were provided with learning activities and career exploration that helped them understand engineering while earning college credits that will lead to an engineering program of study upon high school graduation. These experiences were offered early enough in their education to allow changes in their career path. Through activities targeted to a high school audience, the Maker Fridays project dispelled misconceptions and transformed careers in engineering into a tangible and viable option for rural students

Psychological Distress Prevalence and Associated Stressors and Supports Among Urban-Displaced Congolese Adults in Kenya

Background: There is limited understanding of the prevalence of psychological distress and associated stressors and supports among displaced adults in low- and middle-income first asylum countries. Method: This article reports the findings of a cross-sectional study. We recruited 245 Congolese adults (18–80 years) residing in Nairobi, Kenya using snowball sampling. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic characteristics, the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), and a locally developed stressors and supports survey. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine associations among sociodemographic, stressor, and support variables and the likelihood of experiencing psychological distress. Results: More than half of the participants (52.8%) reported symptoms indicative of psychological distress. Factors associated with increased psychological distress included perceiving to have a useful role in one’s family or community, AOR = 1.85; 95% CI [1.1.17, 3.11], p = .012, feeling confused or not knowing what to do, AOR = 2.13; 95% CI [1.20, 4.6], p = .014, and feeling afraid to leave home for medical/health care to help with an illness, AOR = 1.57; 95% CI [1.17, 2.15], p \u3c .01. Additionally, ethnic Banyamulenge Congolese adults without legal refugee status had an increased likelihood of experiencing psychological distress, AOR = .07; 95% CI [0, .74], p = .035. Conclusion: Future research is warranted to understand how to implement targeted mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to improve urban-displaced adults’ sense of safety and belonging. Our findings suggest that legal refugee status is an important structural determinant of mental health, which should be considered in MHPSS practice and policy