Merredith Portsmore

Across the U.S, hundreds of colleges and universities reach beyond their walls to K-12 classrooms to make sure all students have the opportunities to see pathways for themselves as STEM professionals. While many programs have seen student interest and pursuit of careers increase as a result of their work, STEM outreach is an understudied area of learning. Funded by NSF, Tufts University and Indiana University have been researching the engineering outreach program, STOMP –Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program, housed at Tufts University’s Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. The project has conducted qualitative and quantitative research on the outreach program and iterated on program elements that help outreach ambassadors maximize their impact. To date, our work has focused on engineering-based outreach but many of the ideas cross STEM boundaries.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant nos.DRL-1657509 and DRL-1657519. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

More information and resources are available at:   https://sites.tufts.edu/stemoutreachtools/