Developing a STEM+M Identity in Underrepresented Minority Youth Through Biomechanics and Sports-Based Education

• Published in: Journal of biomechanical engineering Vol. 143; no. 4
• Main Authors: Marshall, Brittany, Loya, Amy, Drazan, John, Prato, Anthony, Conley, Nicole, Thomopoulos, Stavros, E Reuther, Katherine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-04-2021
• Subjects: Adolescent; Basketball; Biomechanical Phenomena; Child; Engineering - education; Female; Humans; Male; Mathematics; Minority Groups; Science - education; Social Identification; Sports; Technology
• ISSN: 1528-8951
• DOI: 10.1115/1.4047548

A Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEM+M) identity, a form of social identity, is the extent to which an individual feels accepted in the STEM+M career fields. The development of a strong STEM+M identity hinges largely on one's perceived self-efficacy in STEM+M and can be bolstered by associating STEM+M with other areas in which an individual already exhibits self-efficacy. In this study, a basketball camp served as a platform for STEM+M education in an effort to link participants' self-efficacy in basketball to STEM+M concepts where they may feel less self-efficacious. Over the first 2 years of the program, known as the Youth Sports Lab (YSL), two cohorts of underrepresented minority (URM) middle school students attended a 4-day long basketball camp hosted at Columbia University in partnership with Harlem- and Albany-based afterschool programs. The camp consisted of basketball training, jump plate fabrication, data collection, invited speakers, and group-based research projects. Our hypotheses were that participation in the program would lead to improved (1) familiarity, (2) perceived importance, and (3) interest in STEM+M. Participant responses, gathered from a 17-question Likert-scale survey administered before and after the camp, demonstrated 10 questions with significantly increased responses due to the program. The results support the conclusion that the sports-based engineering program increased STEM+M identity in the URM cohort. Future improvements to the program will include midyear student engagement and long-term follow-up.