Project Description
Project Name
Using drone technology, communal motivation, and strength-based approaches to engage middle school female students from rural areas in STEM
Take Flight is building awareness around STEM occupations for female students in middle school Science and CTE (Career and Technical Education) classrooms. It builds on changing the message. The Take Flight project emphasizes communal goals, and works to dispel the concept of who belongs in STEM, by broadening ideas around skills in multiple STEM disciplines. For female students in rural communities, this means shifting how conversations, careers and learning around STEM skills take place; challenging stereotypes and social constructs, and broadening the way rural students and educators view, talk about, and connect to STEM.
The Take Flight project has 3 main objectives:
- Change the message. To increase the motivation of female students to pursue STEM goals in rural communities, messages about STEM must be delivered in new ways to include communal goals, specifically those that are collaborative and/or altruistic.
- Use the disruptive and multidisciplinary mechanism of drones. Drones are not just disruptive. They have the multidisciplinary ability to reshape STEM industries by design and application. They lend themselves to breaking stereotypes and promoting communal goals and, thus, are the perfect “vehicle” for delivering a new message about STEM identity.
- Deliver the new message using strengths-based approaches. Learning contexts must be designed to engage female students, mitigate stereotype threat, and leverage students’ assets.
STEM Heros Podcast: Interview with Dr. Amanda Bastoni
Take Flight PI and Director of Career, Technical and Adult Education at CAST, Dr. Amanda Bastoni, was interviewed on the STEM Heroes podcast. Join host David Young as he interviews Amanda Bastoni, an expert in STEM education and drone curriculum development. Amanda shares her journey from photography teacher to STEM advocate, and discusses her groundbreaking work with CAST, developing free drone curriculum for middle schools.
Curriculum & Training
Take Flight has not yet been released publicly. We are working with teachers to finish the project and will share out finalized curriculum in 2026. If you would like to be emailed when this curriculum is available to the public, please fill out our interest form.
We also offer training for groups of up to 30 people prior to the release date as part of our professional development services. If you are interested in this, please contact Sarah Hocking at shocking@cast.org for more information and pricing.
Timeline
2022–2026
Funder
NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST)
Partners
Maine Department of Education
NH Department of Education
Career & Technical Education Schools
Project Leadership
Amanda Bastoni, CAST (PI)
Jess Gropen, CAST (Co-PI)
Sam Johnston, CAST (Co-PI)
Eric Feldborg, former CTE State Director NH and STEM Education Consultant
Contact
For more information about this project, please contact Sarah Hocking.
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