Engagement in Practice: The Boys Girls Clubs as Community Partner for Engineering

摘要

In their service activities, engineering faculty often seek opportunities to show STEM content to young people (especially underrepresented minorities) in order to generate excitement, to educate about STEM topics, and to influence some to pursue STEM careers. In this paper, we describe a 16-year partnership between one department of engineering and its local Boys & Girls Clubs affiliate. We argue that (1) the Boys & Girls Clubs are an excellent partner for engineering faculty, offering advantages over other potential partners, and (2) such an ongoing collaboration offers clear benefits not obtainable by short-term or one-time activities. We start by describing each partner. We then give a history of the partnership and present data on attitudes of Club members about science and math. Finally we describe lessons learned and make recommendations.