Ms. Hines and the Sick 5th Graders -– Making Hands-on Outreach and Learning about the Environment Engaging Through the Use of Case Stories!

Inclusion of minority and low income students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) early in their educational careers is vital to help guide them on the track for higher education. Both peer and societal pressures that tell girls they should shy away from STEM are especially prevalent in the middle school grades for female students. Therefore, before peer pressure and popular culture lures them away from self-efficacy in math and science, outreach to females outside of the traditional classroom is crucial. For this research project, thirteen middle school students were invited to attend a summer camp hosted in the environmental engineering laboratory at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. Three environmental and public health “cases” or stories were developed to increase the student interest in science and environmental engineering. The girls were grouped into teams and each group was assigned one of the three cases in which a community member or pet became sick due to an unknown microbial hazard in water. They were asked to become scientists to solve the cases. The hands on experience included collecting environmental water samples from a local park and teaching the girls how to use environmental equipment to test for bacteria levels in the water to learn about a real-world environmental problem – water quality and water impairment. The use of the “case” to teach environmental and public health showed increases in the student’s interests in the sciences and engineering. The participants were given short preand post-surveys to assess the experience by collecting qualitative and quantitative data. This paper will discuss the cases used for the camp using the “cases in the sciences” method used during the camp and the impact hands-on experiences had on increasing student interest.