BUILDERS: A Project-Based Learning Experience to Foster STEM Interest in Students from Underserved High Schools

Abstract

Access to enriching science programs is not equitable, with students from affluent districts having more opportunities to develop their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills than students from underserved districts. The Building Unique Inventions to Launch Discovery, Engagement, and Reasoning in STEM (BUILDERS) program was started in 2017 with support from the National Science Foundation’s ITEST program to provide students from the Alabama Black Belt with STEM opportunities to which they would otherwise have no access. This project-based learning (PBL) program uses the concept of a makerspace to allow students to explore how science and technology can be used to solve the problems that affect their own communities. During an intensive, 3-week summer experience (the BUILDERS Academy), teams of students enthusiastically use the makerspace to design, build, and test prototypes of technology-based solutions to their community problems. During this immersive PBL process, they acquire and apply STEM concepts, learn about STEM careers, and acquire valuable 21^st century skills. An extension of the summer Academy into the academic year was only moderately successful, highlighting the need to make extra-curricular STEM interventions available to underserved students in order to increase equitable access to practical and enriching educational experiences in STEM.