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This chapter focuses on successful strategies for increasing the number of males who enter and succeed in science at the college level. These strategies reflect lessons we have learned over the years from the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, launched in 1989, for high-achieving African American students in science and engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Intervention strategies to increase participation and success in STEM areas vary depending on the specific goals of programs and presumably, their funding. Matyas (1991) focused on minority engineering programs and found that successful programs tend to contain the following elements: (a) assistance with admission procedures;, (b) assistance with student matriculation; (c) academic support services; (d) student study center; (e) linkage of students with minority student organizations in engineering; and (f) summer engineering jobs. A recent, systematic review by a panel of experts identified eight design principles that underpin exemplary and promising higher education-based STEM interventions: (a) institutional leadership; (b) targeted recruitment; (c) engaged faculty; (d) personal attention; (e) peer support; (f) enriched research experience; (g) bridging to the next level; and (h) continuous evaluation (BEST, 2004).

More than 10 years after its founding, the STEM Women of Color Conclave® has emerged as the largest safe brave space in the United States for women faculty of color in the academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Originally intended to be a national assembly, the Conclave® has evolved into a safe brave space that serves as a refuge for STEM women faculty of color who are regularly taxed with the struggle of having to navigate the unwelcoming, and often hostile, environments of the ivory tower in very unique ways. This chapter narrates how the Conclave's founding members journeyed toward creating and sustaining this safe brave space. The reader is awakened to deeper awareness of and sensitivities for the ways in which safe brave spaces must address both the complexities related to struggle – and liberation from that struggle – for both occupiers and observers of safe brave spaces. However, just as the quantum observer can disturb the system just by observing it and, ultimately, change or even nullify the results, we recognize that merely observing the Conclave® would nullify its intended purpose and, in the end, render it unsafe. Therefore, the reader can anticipate an absence of direct observations, reports of outcomes, or specific accounts of progress related to the occupiers of our safe brave space. Rather, the chapter offers an invitation to the reader to explore the authors' lived experiences as occupiers who designed a safe brave space. We invite the reader, particularly those who are also observers of safe brave spaces, to join us in protecting these valuable spaces.

Research often neglects the full continuum of the STEM pipeline in terms of underserved and underrepresented populations. African American males, in particular, experience limited access, opportunity, and preparation along STEM trajectories preK-12. The purpose of this paper is to challenge this gap by presenting examples of preK-12 programs that nurture and promote STEM development and learner outcomes for underrepresented populations.

A culturally responsive, asset-based approach emphasizes the importance of leveraging out-of-school practices that shape African-American males learning experiences. From a practitioner standpoint, the need to understand the importance of developing a STEM identity as a conduit to better improve STEM outcomes for African-American males is discussed.

To respond to the full continuum of the pipeline, the authors highlight the role of families and STEM programs that support African-American male students’ STEM identity development generally with an emphasis on how particular out-of-school programs (e.g. The Children’s Museum of Memphis [CMOM], MathScience Innovation Center [MSiC]) cultivate STEM trajectories. The authors conclude with how preK-12 settings can collaborate with local museums and other agencies to create opportunities for greater access and improve the quality of African-American males’ STEM preparation.

The intellectual value of our work lies in the fact that few studies have focused on the importance of examining the full continuum of the STEM pipeline with a particular emphasis on STEM development in early childhood (preK-3). Similarly, few studies have examined the role of identity construction and meaning-making practices as a conduit to better STEM outcomes for African-American males prek-12.

Much of the extant research, practice and policy in engineering education has focused on the limited persistence, waning interest and lack of preparation among Black students to continue beyond the post-secondary engineering pipeline. However, this research suggests that many Black PhD students persist and succeed in engineering, fueled by various motivational strengths. To better understand the motivations of Black students in engineering doctoral programs, this study aims to explore the factors that influence their decision to enroll in either an engineering or a computing doctoral program.

This paper uses an intrinsic and extrinsic motivational framework to investigate the inspiration of 44 Black engineering doctoral students in PhD engineering programs in 11 engineering schools across the country.

Results show that the participants’ motivation to pursue a PhD in engineering comes from several distinct factors, including the following: an unyielding passion for their particular discipline, a sense of responsibility to serve marginalized peoples and society, a path toward autonomy, pre-PhD mentorship and research opportunities and family and prior work experience.

Based on this study’s findings, a reconceptualization of graduate engineering education that incorporates the importance of “being Black” and its relationships with motivating and, potentially, retaining Black science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students is also offered.

This paper seeks to expose particular constructs and behaviors surrounding Black students’ motivation to learn and achieve in engineering at the highest academic levels, offering a more nuanced perspective than currently is found in traditional engineering education literature.

Many scholars and practitioners have attempted innovative teaching practices in an effort to make complex ideas easier to comprehend and retain. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between learning and the use of 3D models created to provide physical representations of abstract concepts students could hold and manipulate.

Using a quasi-experimental design, we test both the students' initial comprehension of the concept and their retention of the information four weeks later when the course concluded.

Findings included an initial boost in information retention and a likely increased retention of the information, showing promising trajectories for incorporating 3D objects to enhance teaching in the classroom.

This study provides a unique analysis of the use of 3D printing technology to illustrate abstract concepts. This teaching innovation provides another example of how technology can enhance and engage students through active learning. We find that this approach can increase student retention of material.

The number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African-Americans in STEM fields has been increasing, but at a slower pace than the number of bachelor's degrees earned by blacks in other fields. Between 2000 and 2008, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African-Americans grew at a faster rate than the total number awarded to all students (27 percent versus 21 percent). However, the growth rate in the number of bachelor's degrees earned by African-Americans in STEM fields has been lower than the rate of growth of bachelor's degrees awarded in other fields. As mentioned, the total number of bachelor's degrees awarded to blacks has increased; however, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded increased by only 21 percent in biological sciences and 1 percent in engineering and declined by 14 percent in mathematics and statistics and 1 percent in physical sciences (National Science Foundation, 2010).