Impact Of K 16 Programs At New Jersey Institute Of Technology On Smet

Over thirty (30) years ago, faculty at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) recognized a need to develop programs directed at minority and underrepresented students in the K-12 years in order to introduce them to the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, (STEM). From this humble beginning, numerous programs have been initiated that encompass the K-16 years in education. These programs all have the objective of increasing the minorities and underrepresented population to the STEM areas but each program is directed to different age groups and the approach to achieving these objectives varies. The student pipeline (K-16) begins with the Elementary Science Outreach Program offered at area schools for K-8 students. It continues with the FEMME programs, which direct their initial attention to females in the 4th grade and continue on with offerings to 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in STEM fields during a four-week summer course. These programs can be followed by the Upward Bound program for students in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades or the Pre-college Academy which offers college courses for college credit to ninth through twelfth graders. Both Upward Bound and the Academy are intensive summer and academic year programs. In the college years (13-16) programs such as Educational Opportunity, Undergraduate Research Experience and the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program continue the development of minority and underrepresented students in the STEM areas. To date, all of these programs, and many more of a specific nature, have been highly successful in achieving their goals of developing awareness and recruiting students into STEM fields. Details of the numerous programs at NJIT will be presented. Introduction and Background New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is an inner city urban institution located in Newark, New Jersey with a social, economic, and academically diverse student body consisting of approximately 5800 undergraduate and 3000 graduate students. Currently, the undergraduate population is approximately composed of one-third (women, Hispanic, and black) minorities. The institution has, traditionally for the most part, consisted of student bodies, who were the first in their families to seek a college education. P ge 984.1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education NJIT was founded in 1881 as the Newark Technical School. At its founding, the founders stated, “The Newark Technical School has for its object in all departments, the advancement of the manufacturing interest of the city, and its course is arranged with special reference to the intellectual wants and improvement of the working classes.” Newark, New Jersey was a hub during the industrial revolution with numerous industries. New Jersey was a great state for many new inventions and Wall Street was only ten miles away. The city blossomed. Its students were the first generation college bound students from the families of European immigrants. In 1919, the school became Newark College of Engineering. For the next almost 50 years it served as a school for first generation college bound students of European immigrants.. By the 1950’s, the economic and social development in Newark had gained momentum as the city prospered. However, things began to change during the 1950’s with the active movement by the black community for equality in deed rather than words. Then in July, 1967 racial violence swept the city. The black neighborhoods were inflamed and the National Guard entered Newark. The once beautiful, prosperous city of Newark became the classic example of the urban blight that overcame many of America’s cities in the aftermath of World War II. Martin Luther King, Jr. had stated something like, “Learn baby learn, don’t burn baby burn”. Simultaneously, immigration patterns changed from Europe to South and Central America and Asia. A new minority joined the black community. It was during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that the precollege programs at NJIT began to develop in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and Civil and Environmental Engineering as the need was recognized to provide opportunities for underrepresented populations. Key faculty and staff were quickly aware that a need existed for outreach programs to this community and their implementation plan was rapid. Over the last 30-40 years although the ethnic background of the children of immigrants has changed, the school, which became NJIT in 1974, still served as a school for first generation, college bound students. The Center for Pre-college Programs, which started in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, became a separate entity in 1988. Hence, NJIT has a long history of outreach programs for elementary through college level students. The outreach programs developed by the Center for Pre-college Programs currently serve more than 4500 elementary and secondary school students and teachers annually through an array of pre-college programs. The extensive array of programs that have been developed at NJIT over the last four decades will be discussed and pertinent statistics will be presented in this paper. These programs all have the objective of increasing minorities and underrepresented populations to STEM areas, but each program is directed to different age groups and the approach to achieving these objectives varies. The literature, particularly the American Society of Engineering Education, the Frontiers in Education and the International Conference on Engineering Education proceedings, contains publications from many universities engaged in pre-college programs. Many of these publications have been cited by the authors in previous publications. 1-14 The Programs The Pre-college Center is dedicated to help schools and school districts in assuring all children the opportunity to learn and to meet the high academic expectations of the standards. Its activities are based on the belief that all children must be given the opportunity to achieve those P ge 984.2 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education skills and knowledge addressed in the content standards. Our instruction provides teachers with the skills and support needed in their classrooms to meet and implement the academic requirements demanded by the NJ Content Standards and the students with access to appropriate STEM education. Seeking to fulfill the "NCLB"(No Child Left Behind) mandate at the pre-collegiate level and continue to provide participants with access to appropriate STEM education, mentoring activities and peer support, we have systematically organized the Center’s programs into several complementary categories. • Teaching, curriculum reform and standards • Science and math for access for children with disabilities • Access to college curriculum through the Pre-college Academy