Growing STEMS: Training the Next Generation of Engineers for the Naval Workforce
Abstract
The goal of the Growing STEMS Partnership (GSP) is to recruit, educate, inspire, and train a diverse student population and assist their transition from academia into Navy employment through project-relevant, experience-centered activities. Our team includes researchers and educators from Texas Tech University (TTU) who will lead student training and mentoring activities with DON Partners at NAWCWD. The theme of the GSP is engineering with an emphasis on energetic materials education. Developing engineers with a focus on energetic materials addresses all DON Framework Priority Areas. Very few academic institutions have the expertise to teach this niche, as we do at TTU. We are already committed to training the technical workforce relevant to Navy missions with on-going DOD grants. The proposed GSP will enable TTU to expand and formalize our student-mentoring pipeline insuring a steady flow of well-trained engineers transitioning into the DON enterprise. A problem for engineering students is the meaningful integration of math and science content into engineering design because real-world problems motivating the engineering design are often missing from the hard sciences. Our team will integrate meaningful context through joint student mentoring. Within our Navy partnerships, the purpose-motivating joint-research elicits minority student interest, engagement, and a deeper understanding of STEM content that is inherently entrenched in DON real-world applications. By cementing existing Navy relationships into partnerships, the GSP will improve the capacity of education pipelines by creating real-world context motivating the learning environment, while also expanding studentopportunities for training, mentoring, and transitioning into Navy employment. A novelty of the GSP is that mentoring will guide students in finding relevance within their work to their lives and communities. Finding personal relevance creates a stronger foundation for students to identify themselves in Naval STEM careers and transition into DON employment.Learning within the GSP is predicated on guiding principles from education theory proven effective across cultures, disciplines, and experience levels. We will scaffold training around experience-oriented objectives. Objective 1: Engineering Outreach includes recruiting minority engineering students for hands-on, DON relevant research projects with peer mentoring and positive role-models. Objective 2: Student Education includes curriculum development thatwill integrate Navy projects into the classroom and professional development activities such as proposal writing skills to formulate ideas and project plans. Objective 3: Research-Centered Student Training on Navy research projects that will provide students with a sense of ownership and accomplishment. Objective 4: Student Induction into the Navy Workforce through NREIP student internships at NSWCIHD and NAWCWD that will foster students STEM identity and enable them to visualize their transition into the Naval workforce. The PI (Pantoya) has been very successful placing students into the DON workforce. The GSP will expand this capacity with more compreence-oriented context with committed participation of DON scientists that serve as committee members on student theses and dissertations while the student works on projects relevant to the Navy. Sustainability will be supported by our Engineering Advisory Panel composed of a diverse group of engineers,educators, and Navy stakeholders that will consider GSP activities and practices annually and suggest improvements for continued growth of the GSP beyond the 3-year program.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112519
Entities
People
- Michelle L. Pantoya
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Texas Tech University System
- United States Navy