Program Director North Carolina Central University Durham, North Carolina, United States
Program Abstract: STEM higher education is perceived to be rigid dogmatic thinking involving rote learning. This perception of STEM limits student engagement in STEM learning while encouraging low-order thinking skills as the methodology for STEM learning, each restricting the development of a diverse STEM talent pool to foster innovation and invention in the twenty-first-century global economy. This work focuses on “making” or maker-centered learning as an innovative approach to shift the perception of STEM higher education while nurturing higher-order thinking skills and fostering product development and generation as demonstrated in two undergraduate biology courses at a member institution of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Presenters in this session will discuss the innovative learning approach used in these STEM higher education courses and review preliminary findings in student outcomes, highlighting artifacts of student experiences with "making."
