At CodeREV we’re big supporters of kids having access to hands-on STEM experiences as early as possible. A recent article is showing that when this happens in undergraduate courses, it has a rather expected effect on graduation rates. The article titled Hands-On Science in the Classroom Boosts STEM Retention Almost 25 Percent in Photonics Media lays it all out.
The author writes, “A recent study found that a student’s chances of completing a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degree significantly increases when he or she participates in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), which engage students in hands-on research at a large scale. Researchers from the Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science analyzed data from more than 4,000 students who participated in the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at the University of Texas. Using propensity score-matching to control for student-level differences, the researchers tested the effect of participating in FRI on students’ probability of graduating with a STEM degree and their probability of completing a degree in six years. In students who completed all three semesters of FRI, likelihood of graduating increased from 66 to 83 percent, and likelihood of graduating with a STEM degree increased from 71 to 94 percent.
The results, which were similar across all demographic groups, indicate that potentially for every ten students who participate in FRI, two will graduate who would have otherwise dropped out or taken longer than six years to get an undergraduate degree; and almost three more students will earn a STEM degree because they participated in the program.
FRI puts first- and second-year undergraduates in faculty-led labs where they perform discovery-based research on questions and problems of interest to the scientific community. Students choose projects from more than 25 different areas in the life sciences, physical sciences and computer science. They have the opportunity to make discoveries that are relevant to stakeholders outside the classroom and engage in troubleshooting, problem solving, and building off one another’s progress in ways that resemble the practice of STEM.”
These are some pretty impressive statistics but it stands to reason that if you get kids involved at an even younger age, the results could be even more impressive. And that’s why CodeREV has made it our mission to do just that. Check out our summer camps for more information.