The Effect of an Integrated STEM Course on Middle School Students’ Interest and Career Aspirations in STEM Fields

Abstract

The STEM Semantics Survey was employed to investigate the effect of a one semester integrated STEM lab course on middle school students’ interest in STEM fields and STEM careers. A 2x2 repeated measures MANOVA was used to analyze the data. Significant results were not achieved when examining the data by treatment groups or by gender. Increases in science interest were observed in the overall sample, but the treatment group and comparison groups did not yield significantly different results. Previous research indicates that this type of course should cause changes in student interest which leads to new questions about the survey instrument, length of treatment intervention, and other factors that were not accounted for in the design of this study.