Event

Presenters: Kimberly Biddle, Scott Gordon, & Jean Crowder, Game Design with Mentoring for Computer Science and Math Achievement for Educationally Disadvantaged Students; Emily Stoeth, Bridging the Gap; Gary Mayer, Maximizing Mentor Effectiveness in Increasing Student Interest and Success in STEM

Summary: Mentoring models for youth participants within ITEST projects can take a myriad of forms. They can vary on who mentors are, be they students, teachers, professionals, or community members, and they take place in a variety of settings including classrooms, afterschool programs, and internships. In addition, the goal of the mentee/mentor relationship is just as variable; from teaching the mentee something specific to providing them examples of STEM-related careers. Results from the Management Information System, which collects data from all active ITEST projects about what projects do and whom they serve, showed that 51% of ITEST projects in the 2013-2014 school year included mentoring of youth participants as one of their project activities. During this webinar we heard from three such ITEST projects and we explored their mentoring structures, goals, challenges and successes.

Kimberly Biddle, Scott Gordon, and Jean Crowder described their program of multi-level, mutual mentoring with a focus on mentoring by college students to underserved, ethnic and gender minority 11^th grade students learning to program computers. Emily Stoeth described the evolution of their project’s mentoring structure from a 1-to-1 student-staff model to a community mentoring model with New York City area teens who were introduced to zoo and aquarium STEM careers. Gary Mayer shared some results from their research study on mentor effectiveness focusing on the most effective mentoring strategies for increasing STEM self-efficacy and achievement-related choices.