Track: Program & Project Development, 4-H Youth Development
Description: Developing a talented, diverse workforce of STEM professionals is imperative for addressing society’s most pressing challenges. Engaging youth in STEM programs, especially before middle school, is critical for strengthening the STEM talent pipeline. This session will equip participants with knowledge and skills to facilitate project-based learning opportunities focused on real-world challenges that build youth’s problem-solving and technical communication skills and introduce youth to STEM career pathways. Participants will work through abbreviated versions of a series of activities that guide students through the engineering design process, including identifying and understanding a problem; applying concepts and skills from multiple STEM disciplines to design, build, test, and optimize a solution; and communicating the design process and impacts of their solution. Adaptations of the core engineering design activity will be discussed to highlight the transdisciplinary nature of this framework for identifying and solving problems. These activities can be used as grab-and-go lessons or organized into a series culminating in a project.
