Abstract:
A  Remotely  Operated  Vehicle  Scaffolded  Activity  is  Increasing  Student   and  Teacher  Interest  in  STEM  –  a  Reporting  on  a  Three-­‐year  Study   Funded  by  the  Office  of  Naval  Research    For  the  past  three  years  a  university  in  the  western  United  States  has  worked  to  build  a  scaffolded  activity,  using  curriculum  from  STEM  content  areas  within  an  ROV  building  activity.  The  activity  requires  students  to  learn  various  basic  STEM  principles  including  buoyancy,  pressure,  density,  hydrodynamics,  electronics,  and  the  engineering  design  process,  while  designing,  building,  testing,  and  competing  with  a  personally-­‐built  ROV.  Our  data  over  the  past  three  years  shows  that  student  (n  =  437)  interest  in  math,  science,  engineering,  and  technology  has  increased  along  with  their  proficiency  in  problem  solving  methods.  We  believe  this  is  a  reflection  of  embedding  STEM  principles  in  an  exciting,  hands-­‐on  activity.  Data  regarding  teacher  self-­‐efficacy  in  teaching  these  principles  within  the  framework  of  this  activity  also  shows  that,  although  teachers  were  initially  apprehensive  about  having  to  integrate  STEM  principles  into  the  ROV  activity,  their  perceptive  abilities  and  to  do  so  increased.    This  paper  outlines  the  three-­‐year  study,  detailing  the  ROV  activity,  associated  curriculum  taught,  measurement  tools  used  to  aggregate  the  student  and  teacher  data  points,  and  associated  results.

Citation:
Wright, G., Hurd, R. C., Hacking, K. S., & Truscott, T. T., “A remotely operated vehicle scaffolded activity is increasing student and teacher interest in STEM – A reporting on a rhree-year study funded by the Office of Naval Research”, 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Engineering Education, Seattle, WA. June 14-17, 2015. doi: 10.18260/p.23438