ONWiE Summit 2024

Engineering Diversity: Evaluating Effective Outreach

Virtual summit November 21st, 2024

Register for free using the green “Register” button above.

Featured Speakers

Dr. Agnes d’Entremont, P.Eng

Dr. Agnes d’Entremont, P.Eng., is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean pro tem, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC. Her work focuses on student learning and curriculum development in mechanical engineering. She teaches courses in mechanics (including biomechanics), statistics, and experimental design, and teaches Arts and Commerce students about engineering. Her research focuses on student decision-making around entering engineering and/or particular disciplines, the impacts of STEM outreach initiatives, open educational practices and student usage of open homework systems, and, more generally, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues in engineering education and the broader engineering profession.

Questions (and a few answers) about assessing the impact of STEM outreach

STEM outreach programs, such as summer science and engineering camps, are widely used to address the underrepresentation of women, girls, and other marginalized groups in engineering. Outreach goals are typically to create a welcoming space where children and youth can learn and get excited about STEM topics, and, ultimately, to influence them to enter engineering.

However, determining exactly what leads a young outreach participant to enter engineering school, often years later, is an enormously complex and understudied problem. There are also questions of access (are we reaching those who could most benefit?), construct (what specific measurable changes lead to an engineering trajectory? are they the same for all groups?), and paradigm (should we try to change girls to fit into STEM culture, or try to change STEM culture to meet girls where they are?).

In this talk, I will discuss our ongoing research program, including a systematic review of existing methodological approaches to evaluating STEM outreach with marginalized populations, as well as results from our early studies with children, youth, and parents/caregivers in a large urban STEM outreach program

Dr. Daniel Munro

Dr. Daniel Munro is Director of Research & Innovation at Actua and Co-Director of Shift Insights, a research shop that examines the social, technological and economic challenges and opportunities facing Canada. Dan has been an analyst, researcher, advisor and writer on innovation, ethics and public policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, the Conference Board of Canada, and the Council of Canadian Academies. He has taught political science, philosophy and innovation studies at the University of Toronto, Western University, the University of Ottawa, and Queen’s University, was co-host of the Ethics Lab radio show on NewsTalk1310 and Maclean’s Magazine’s Ethics Lab columnist. Dan’s research interests span innovation, education, applied ethics, risk and uncertainty, JAWS and the Apollo 8 mission. He holds degrees from the University of Toronto (BA), Western University (MA) and M.I.T. (PhD).

Measuring and Communicating the Effectiveness of STEM Outreach

“You can observe a lot by watching!” – Yogi Berra

In this session, Actua’s Director of Research & Innovation, Dan Munro, will share insights on how Actua approaches the measurement and communication of the impact of STEM outreach programs. He will discuss how the methodologies we choose and the ways we communicate impact depend on the audience(s) we need to engage; the aims, structure, stage, and content of outreach programs; characteristics and capacities of youth participants; and the broader context in which programs are delivered – while ensuring that evaluation is ethically sound and practically possible. Drawing on examples of Actua’s evaluation work, Dan will share thoughts about what seems to work, what doesn’t, and what else we can try in measuring and communicating the success of STEM outreach programs.

 

Allison Van

Allison Van is the Executive Director of Spark: a centre for social research innovation at McMaster University. She specializes in mixed-methods complex systems analysis, community/academic partnerships, and the translation of research into social change. Her career has traversed sectors and disciplines, including extensive work in agricultural and rural development, poverty, child welfare and juvenile justice, social entrepreneurship, and medical innovation.  Uniting these experiences was a common approach to applied research and experimentation, allowing Allison to transform radically different systems and organizations.  Previously, she was the Associate Director of Evaluation at the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute at University of North Carolina.  Prior to that she worked at Winrock International, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the National Rural Funders Collaborative.

Using Numerical Measures and Narrative Detail to Create Data Storytelling

Ms. Van will discuss some of the ways to understand the subjective experiences of different participants in programs and partnerships, and how to think about combining specific, numerical measures with more narrative detail to both expand the level of insight into how effective the program was for different groups under different circumstances, and to tell a more compelling story to the general public, policymakers and the partners themselves.  We will also discuss some of the myriad ways of visualizing qualitative data to enhance data storytelling.

 

ONWiE Summit 2019