Diversity and Outreach: GOAL Program
In the summer of 2020, UMD’s Women in Engineering (WIE) program and the Department of Mechanical Engineering initiated the Get Out And Learn (GOAL) program which was developed in response to the sudden shift in the K-12 educational environment created by the COIVD pandemic. The cancellation of outreach programs, summer camps, and the complete pivot to online/remote instructions greatly reduced the access of under-represented groups to hands-on STEM curriculum. This shift had the potential to greatly disrupt the pathway for these groups to engage and pursue STEM education and careers.
The GOAL program provides hands-on STEM kits for middle and high school students. These kits include inexpensive physical componentry and a curriculum that introduces STEM concepts in a way that is fun and accessible to all. Students are engaged through independent physical exploration, instructional + group reflection, and design thinking.
In the first two years, 3000 kits have been distributed two local public-school systems, reaching boys and girls in traditionally under-represented communities.
Starting in the Fall or 2021, the GOAL program will engage the undergraduate students at UMD to design and manufacture the next round of kits. The GOAL effort is a big, scalable, multi-sakeholder, project that requires not just engineering! As such the undergraduate engagement will be a multi-major two-semester, two-course sequence that will engage students across campus from education, business, public policy, engineering, and beyond. The project includes:
- Working directly with teacher partners to develop and test curriculum during semester 1
- Social entrepreneurship: grant proposal writing, pitching to corporations via their philanthropic divisions etc.
- Assessment and impact tracking (for funding agencies etc.), “how many ____ students are now interested in engineering…
- Technical realization (mass manufacturing, assembly, quality control, …)
- Implementation planning for culminating events (on-campus once permissible)
- Media, publicity and external relations
The two-course sequence was made possible via a partnership with Science Technology and Society (a living and learning program), and the ESRE group. Under-represented STEM recruitment and outreach has long been a pillar of responsible higher education. By plugging this initiative back into the undergraduate curriculum, the students are provided with an opportunity to implement something of scale that directly impacts their own local community. The scale and multi-faceted nature of the project goes beyond isolated theoretical course assignments/activities, and forces a de-siloing across campus in order to PRODUCE something of value, with all of this happening within the undergraduate experience.
Kits sent to students with project materials
Completed student project
