1. Welcome & Framing the Challenge (5 minutes)
Content: Introduce the concept of “STEM Ghost Towns” and the challenge of inequitable access to STEM opportunities in K–6 schools.
Engagement: Poll the audience via hands raised or a quick digital tool (Mentimeter/Slido) to gauge how their schools currently provide access to STEM.
Purpose: Build shared understanding of the equity problem and connect participants' contexts.
2. The Design & Innovation Studio Model (10 minutes)
Content: Overview of Purdue IN-MaC’s Design & Innovation Studios—purpose, structure, technologies (coding, robotics, 3D printing), and statewide implementation.
Engagement: Show images/video clips of studios in action. Ask participants to turn to a neighbor and share one way they currently integrate—or wish they could integrate—STEM tools.
Purpose: Connect the model to participants’ existing practices and inspire possibilities.
3. Research Findings: Teacher Perspectives (10 minutes)
Content: Share key insights from mixed-methods research guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), including teacher adoption, barriers, and successes.
Engagement: Provide the audience with a short case vignette from a rural or urban studio. Ask them to discuss in pairs: “What support would teachers in your school need to succeed here?”
Purpose: Encourage reflection and peer-to-peer connection.
4. Implementation Strategies & Lessons Learned (15 minutes)
Content: Highlight best practices for launching and sustaining studios: professional development models, industry-school partnerships, and leadership strategies for scaling.
Engagement: Small-group brainstorming activity: each table creates a quick “Studio Starter Plan” answering: Who are your partners? What technology would you start with? What challenges might you face?
Purpose: Move from theory to application; give participants a chance to adapt the model to their own setting.
5. Sharing Out & Resource Walkthrough (10 minutes)
Content: Invite groups to share one idea from their Studio Starter Plans in brief. Walk participants through digital resources, frameworks, and templates they can take back.
Engagement: Audience Q&A with real-time resource links (QR codes to case studies, planning guides, IN-MaC website).
Purpose: Provide tangible tools and collective knowledge-sharing.
By participating in this session, attendees will:
Understand how the Design & Innovation Studio model expands equitable STEM access for K–6 students, especially in underserved “STEM Ghost Towns.”
Gain insights from research on teacher adoption, challenges, and successes with technology integration.
Explore strategies for building teacher confidence through sustained professional development and industry-school partnerships.
Leave with practical frameworks, resources, and examples for creating or adapting innovative STEM learning environments in their own schools and districts.
The Next Generation for Manufacturing Competitiveness?: Investigating the Influence of Industry-Driven Outreach on Children Career Perceptions — Strimel, Krause, Harrell et al.
SpringerLink - https://link.springer.com/journal/41979/articles?page=3&utm_source=chatgpt.com
This article explores how industry outreach shapes K–12 students’ perceptions of manufacturing careers, which supports your framing of co-education and bridging STEM access.
Purdue IN-MaC Design & Innovation Studios – Program overview and statewide impact - https://www.purdue.edu/in-mac/design-and-innovation-studio
Elementary Students’ Engineering Design Process: How Young Students Solve Engineering Problems (with Sung & Kelley) - https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/959/
Walls, W. H., Strimel, G. J., Bartholomew, S. R., Otto, J., & Serban, S. (2023). STEM learning labs in industry settings: A novel application in manufacturing and its influence on student career perceptions. International Journal of Design & Technology Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-023-09863-5
Bosman, L., Strimel, G. J., & Krause, L. G (2020). The role of higher education in establishing career perceptions related to manufacturing: An exploratory study. Industry & Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/0950422220976292
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