Developing a STEM+M Identity in Underrepresented Minority Youth Through Biomechanics and Sports-Based Education

Brittany Marshall; Amy Loya; John Drazan; Anthony Prato; Nicole Conley; Stavros Thomopoulos; Katherine E Reuther

doi:10.1115/1.4047548

Developing a STEM+M Identity in Underrepresented Minority Youth Through Biomechanics and Sports-Based Education

J Biomech Eng. 2021 Apr 1;143(4):041009. doi: 10.1115/1.4047548.

Authors

Brittany Marshall¹, Amy Loya², John Drazan³, Anthony Prato⁴, Nicole Conley⁵, Stavros Thomopoulos¹, Katherine E Reuther⁶

Affiliations

¹ Carroll Laboratories for Orthopedic Surgery, Columbia University, Black Building, Room 1408, 650 W 168th Street, New York, NY 10032.
² Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1623 15th Street, 2113, Troy, NY 12180.
³ Human Motion Lab Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 3737 Market Street, Suite 702, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
⁴ Department of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Geneseo, 1 College Circle, Geneseo, NY 14454.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, 2075 Hillside Road, Storrs, CT 06269.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, 1210 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027.

PMID: 32568379
DOI: 10.1115/1.4047548

Abstract

A Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEM+M) identity, a form of social identity, is the extent to which an individual feels accepted in the STEM+M career fields. The development of a strong STEM+M identity hinges largely on one's perceived self-efficacy in STEM+M and can be bolstered by associating STEM+M with other areas in which an individual already exhibits self-efficacy. In this study, a basketball camp served as a platform for STEM+M education in an effort to link participants' self-efficacy in basketball to STEM+M concepts where they may feel less self-efficacious. Over the first 2 years of the program, known as the Youth Sports Lab (YSL), two cohorts of underrepresented minority (URM) middle school students attended a 4-day long basketball camp hosted at Columbia University in partnership with Harlem- and Albany-based afterschool programs. The camp consisted of basketball training, jump plate fabrication, data collection, invited speakers, and group-based research projects. Our hypotheses were that participation in the program would lead to improved (1) familiarity, (2) perceived importance, and (3) interest in STEM+M. Participant responses, gathered from a 17-question Likert-scale survey administered before and after the camp, demonstrated 10 questions with significantly increased responses due to the program. The results support the conclusion that the sports-based engineering program increased STEM+M identity in the URM cohort. Future improvements to the program will include midyear student engagement and long-term follow-up.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Biomechanical Phenomena
Engineering*