Goals
Female Recruits Explore Engineering is a research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It aims to understand how young women come to know and learn about engineering. Study's purpose is to support academically able young women to think seriously about engineering as a career.
Partners
The study involves three universities: Iowa State University, University of Colorado, and Ohio State University; high schools in Iowa, Colorado, and Ohio; and business partners: US Cellular, Verizon, Research in Motion (RIM), and Iowa Engineering Society.
Activities
High school girls (10th graders), college professors, and school staff work together to explore engineering fields and think about engineering as a career. Unlike in traditional research, the girls take an active part in the project. They help to select the engineering areas to investigate, the activities to pursue further, and the career-related topics to discuss. Students use a password-protected online learning environment to discuss, share, and reflect on their growing knowledge and perceptions of engineering. They have access to mobile cellular devices by which they record their experiences, post their reflections, and communicate with each other and the co-researchers. Data collected from face-to-face interactions and digital postings are being analyzed for the light they shed on the girls' developing perceptions of engineering and careers.
The study involves 120 girls from 3 states: Iowa, Colorado, and Ohio. The study is in its second year; it began when the girls were in 10th grade and will continue till they graduate from high school.