Dr. Meg Blanchard is a Professor of Science Education and University Faculty Scholar at NC State University. She designs professional development projects that provide students with experiences to consider pathways to STEM careers. She works primarily with teachers in rural, low wealth middle and high schools and is investigating how to best sustain interventions in schools with high turnover. Her recent work involves after-school STEM Career Clubs (NSF, Burroughs) and efforts with underrepresented undergraduates and high school teachers to try to diversify the workforce in bioproducts and bioenergy (USDA).
This research investigated what motivated and sustained the involvement of 376 students in cultur... more This research investigated what motivated and sustained the involvement of 376 students in culturally relevant, afterschool STEM clubs at four rural, under-resourced schools. A longitudinal, convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used to investigate participants’ participation in and perceptions of the clubs, their motivations to attend, and their future goals, over three years. Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) served as a guiding theoretical and analytical framework. Overall, students who attended the clubs were African American (55%), female (56%), and 6th graders (42%), attended approximately half of the clubs (43%), and agreed with quality measures on the STEM Club Survey (M = 4.0/5). Students interviewed (n = 131) were most likely (99%) to describe what they enjoyed (intrinsic value), what was useful to them (utility value; 55%), personally important (42%; attainment value), or related to their personal or collective identity (40%). Most participants (78%)...
But it snowed three times last winter! There’s no way the Earth is warming! Similar to some adult... more But it snowed three times last winter! There’s no way the Earth is warming! Similar to some adults, some middle school students are skeptical of climate change, and they often confound their understandings of weather and climate (Bodzin et al. 2014; Leiserowitz, Smith, and Marlon 2011). Although the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013) introduce the terms weather and climate prior to middle school, many states that have not adopted the standards fail to integrate more than basic weather terms prior to secondary school. In some states, the term climate does not appear in the science curriculum until middle school and climate change is not typically discussed until high school. This article describes activities that approximately 200 middle school students (grades 5–8) from four schools participated in during a two-hour, afterschool STEM career club meeting (Blanchard et al. 2017). The club focused on climate change topics for three meetings as part of a National ...
Women and students of marginalized race/ethnicity continue to be underrepresented in many science... more Women and students of marginalized race/ethnicity continue to be underrepresented in many science and engineering fields, and access to special programs, mentors, and internships may influence awareness, intention, and persistence in STEM fields. This mixed-methods case study investigated the experiences, beliefs, and career intentions of thirteen undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups in the United States as they engaged in a federally funded grant program, “Sustainable Futures”. The program consisted of online courses, workshops, and a summer internship, intended to increase awareness, interest, and diverse participation in bioeconomy-related industries. The expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation theoretical framework guided this investigation of students’ changes in beliefs about bioproducts, bioenergy, the bioeconomy, and their career intentions. Program courses helped students develop skills and knowledge and program internships inspired and...
there arose a concern about measures of public knowledge of science, and how well they capture pu... more there arose a concern about measures of public knowledge of science, and how well they capture public knowledge for
Two survey instruments measuring undergraduate students’ beliefs about bioproducts/bioenergy and ... more Two survey instruments measuring undergraduate students’ beliefs about bioproducts/bioenergy and related careers were developed and validated in this research study. The Beliefs about Bioproducts/Bioenergy (BABB) and Career Interest in Bioproducts/Bioenergy (CIBB) surveys were administered to undergraduate students enrolled in courses in a natural resources college. BABB (N = 168) and CIBB (N = 203) survey results were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Validity and reliability were demonstrated. The BABB has two related scales, Personal (P) and Societal (S), which can be used together or separately. ANOVA and t-test analyses determined that students with majors closely related to bioproducts/bioenergy held significantly more positive personal and societal beliefs about bioproducts/bioenergy, as well as related career interests. Differences were identified based on gender, but not by race/ethnicity. Measuring student beliefs abou...
Enhancing Learning Opportunities Through Student, Scientist, and Teacher Partnerships, 2021
This chapter describes an interdisciplinary program between a College of Education and a College ... more This chapter describes an interdisciplinary program between a College of Education and a College of Natural Resources and their partnerships with rural high schools, regional colleges, and bioeconomy industries. The overarching goal of the program was to provide engaging professional development and support for teachers and diverse undergraduate students to prepare and promote diverse students to consider STEM majors and careers related to bioproducts and bioenergy. A team of faculty and graduate students from a Forest Biomaterials department and a Science Education department developed online courses, workshops, and laboratory activities and internship placements for undergraduate students and high school science and CTE teachers. This chapter details the need for the program, its context, online course development, and laboratory activities. For each of the key partners in the program—the faculty and graduate students, the high school teachers, and the undergraduate students—key s...
This book examines visual data use with students (PK-16) as well as in pre-service in- service sc... more This book examines visual data use with students (PK-16) as well as in pre-service in- service science teacher preparation. Each chapter includes discussion about the current state of the art with respect to science classroom application and utilization of the particular visual data targeted by the author(s), discussion and explanation about the targeted visual data as applied by the author in his/her classroom, use of visual data as a diagnostic tool, its use as an assessment tool, and discussion of implications for science teaching and/or science teacher preparation. Although the body of research and practice in this field is growing, there remains a gap in the literature about clearly explicating the use of visual data in the science classroom. A growing body of literature discusses what visual data are (although this topic is still viewed as being at the beginning of its development in educators’ thinking), and there are some scattered examples of studies exploring the use of vi...
This research investigated what motivated and sustained the involvement of 376 students in cultur... more This research investigated what motivated and sustained the involvement of 376 students in culturally relevant, afterschool STEM clubs at four rural, under-resourced schools. A longitudinal, convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used to investigate participants’ participation in and perceptions of the clubs, their motivations to attend, and their future goals, over three years. Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) served as a guiding theoretical and analytical framework. Overall, students who attended the clubs were African American (55%), female (56%), and 6th graders (42%), attended approximately half of the clubs (43%), and agreed with quality measures on the STEM Club Survey (M = 4.0/5). Students interviewed (n = 131) were most likely (99%) to describe what they enjoyed (intrinsic value), what was useful to them (utility value; 55%), personally important (42%; attainment value), or related to their personal or collective identity (40%). Most participants (78%)...
But it snowed three times last winter! There’s no way the Earth is warming! Similar to some adult... more But it snowed three times last winter! There’s no way the Earth is warming! Similar to some adults, some middle school students are skeptical of climate change, and they often confound their understandings of weather and climate (Bodzin et al. 2014; Leiserowitz, Smith, and Marlon 2011). Although the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013) introduce the terms weather and climate prior to middle school, many states that have not adopted the standards fail to integrate more than basic weather terms prior to secondary school. In some states, the term climate does not appear in the science curriculum until middle school and climate change is not typically discussed until high school. This article describes activities that approximately 200 middle school students (grades 5–8) from four schools participated in during a two-hour, afterschool STEM career club meeting (Blanchard et al. 2017). The club focused on climate change topics for three meetings as part of a National ...
Women and students of marginalized race/ethnicity continue to be underrepresented in many science... more Women and students of marginalized race/ethnicity continue to be underrepresented in many science and engineering fields, and access to special programs, mentors, and internships may influence awareness, intention, and persistence in STEM fields. This mixed-methods case study investigated the experiences, beliefs, and career intentions of thirteen undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups in the United States as they engaged in a federally funded grant program, “Sustainable Futures”. The program consisted of online courses, workshops, and a summer internship, intended to increase awareness, interest, and diverse participation in bioeconomy-related industries. The expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation theoretical framework guided this investigation of students’ changes in beliefs about bioproducts, bioenergy, the bioeconomy, and their career intentions. Program courses helped students develop skills and knowledge and program internships inspired and...
there arose a concern about measures of public knowledge of science, and how well they capture pu... more there arose a concern about measures of public knowledge of science, and how well they capture public knowledge for
Two survey instruments measuring undergraduate students’ beliefs about bioproducts/bioenergy and ... more Two survey instruments measuring undergraduate students’ beliefs about bioproducts/bioenergy and related careers were developed and validated in this research study. The Beliefs about Bioproducts/Bioenergy (BABB) and Career Interest in Bioproducts/Bioenergy (CIBB) surveys were administered to undergraduate students enrolled in courses in a natural resources college. BABB (N = 168) and CIBB (N = 203) survey results were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Validity and reliability were demonstrated. The BABB has two related scales, Personal (P) and Societal (S), which can be used together or separately. ANOVA and t-test analyses determined that students with majors closely related to bioproducts/bioenergy held significantly more positive personal and societal beliefs about bioproducts/bioenergy, as well as related career interests. Differences were identified based on gender, but not by race/ethnicity. Measuring student beliefs abou...
Enhancing Learning Opportunities Through Student, Scientist, and Teacher Partnerships, 2021
This chapter describes an interdisciplinary program between a College of Education and a College ... more This chapter describes an interdisciplinary program between a College of Education and a College of Natural Resources and their partnerships with rural high schools, regional colleges, and bioeconomy industries. The overarching goal of the program was to provide engaging professional development and support for teachers and diverse undergraduate students to prepare and promote diverse students to consider STEM majors and careers related to bioproducts and bioenergy. A team of faculty and graduate students from a Forest Biomaterials department and a Science Education department developed online courses, workshops, and laboratory activities and internship placements for undergraduate students and high school science and CTE teachers. This chapter details the need for the program, its context, online course development, and laboratory activities. For each of the key partners in the program—the faculty and graduate students, the high school teachers, and the undergraduate students—key s...
This book examines visual data use with students (PK-16) as well as in pre-service in- service sc... more This book examines visual data use with students (PK-16) as well as in pre-service in- service science teacher preparation. Each chapter includes discussion about the current state of the art with respect to science classroom application and utilization of the particular visual data targeted by the author(s), discussion and explanation about the targeted visual data as applied by the author in his/her classroom, use of visual data as a diagnostic tool, its use as an assessment tool, and discussion of implications for science teaching and/or science teacher preparation. Although the body of research and practice in this field is growing, there remains a gap in the literature about clearly explicating the use of visual data in the science classroom. A growing body of literature discusses what visual data are (although this topic is still viewed as being at the beginning of its development in educators’ thinking), and there are some scattered examples of studies exploring the use of vi...
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