K-12 education

High Schoolers From Around the State Explore STEM Majors and Careers Through New Georgia Tech Summer Institute

admin — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:01:51 +0000

High Schoolers From Around the State Explore STEM Majors and Careers Through New Georgia Tech Summer Institute admin Thu, 07/03/2025 - 12:01

“I’m a bit more interested in going to Georgia Tech now than I was before,” said Harris County High School student Isaiah Willis while participating in a chemistry lab activity during last week’s Georgia Tech Summer Institute. “The science department that we’re in now—this seems pretty fun. I’ve never taken a chemistry class, so it seems pretty interesting. I might want to do this when I grow up.”

That sense of discovery was central to the campus experience for the 93 rising 11th graders representing 57 counties across Georgia—from Dade in the northwest corner to Chatham along the coast. The inaugural program was a weeklong statewide residential program hosted by Expanded Learning Programs in the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC), which is now part of the College of Lifetime Learning.

Throughout the week, participants explored STEM majors and careers through hands-on activities, attended sessions on navigating college life, and built community with one another through fun and engaging social events. The Summer Institute, modeled after the Governor’s Honors Program and Georgia Tech’s First-Generation College Institute, is designed to identify, engage and prepare talented students for a successful transition to college, while providing STEM opportunities to build career awareness.

Sirocus Barnes, director of CEISMC’s Expanded Learning Programs and program organizer, explained that the Summer Institute was created to support the Institute’s strategic goal of expanding access by developing talent across Georgia—particularly among K-12 students in rural and under-resourced communities. The initiative aims to give students the tools to become competitive college applicants and future leaders in the STEM workforce.

“One of the things we really want to focus on in Expanded Learning Programs is providing rich and meaningful opportunities for young people outside of the traditional school day. Summer presents a great opportunity to do just that,” he said. “We’re using this unique window in the summer, when students are more free to travel, to invite them for a week of immersive learning. This program gives them the chance to spend meaningful time on campus and experience what Georgia Tech has to offer.”

A standout feature of the summer program was the strong support from the Office of Strategic Student Access and the six other academic colleges. Representatives from the Scheller College of Business, the College of Computing, the College of Design, the College of Engineering, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Sciences hosted sessions over a two-day period. They gave building tours, led STEM learning activities connected to the majors offered, and demonstrated some of the research innovations students might encounter in those career paths.

On another day, staff from Undergraduate Admission, Scholarships and Financial Aid, and Student Engagement and Well-being delivered presentations about their respective offices. Current undergraduates, who served as group leaders, offered a peer perspective on college life. The final day concluded with a family showcase where participants shared reflections about their experiences.

Greenbrier High School student Katie Branigan summed up the sentiment the Summer Institute aimed to foster. “I’m very grateful because I’ve always wanted to go to Georgia Tech since I was little,” she said. “I’ve always known that I wanted to do engineering, and I’m just very grateful that I got this experience.”

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech's Summer Institute welcomed 93 rising 11th graders representing 57 counties across Georgia to campus.

Summary

Georgia Tech's Summer Institute welcomed 93 rising 11th graders representing 57 counties across Georgia to campus. The inaugural program was a weeklong statewide residential program hosted by Expanded Learning Programs in the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC), which is now part of the College of Lifetime Learning.

Dateline

Mon, 06/30/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Joëlle Walls
CEISMC Communications

Keywords

CEISMC

college of lifetime learning

K-12 education

Georgia Tech Summer Institute

News room topics

Campus and Community

Brook Byers Professor Weissburg Wins $3M Grant to Bring Biologically Inspired Design to High Schools

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:11:41 +0000

Brook Byers Professor Weissburg Wins $3M Grant to Bring Biologically Inspired Design to High Schools admin Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:11

The way a ladybug folds its wings can help aerospace engineers design more compact satellites. Studying how ants dig tunnels could help us create our own tunnels more efficiently.

The idea of using nature’s examples to develop products and designs that benefit society is the cornerstone of a new project at Georgia Tech that aims to get more high school students interested in engineering.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the $3 million effort will put high school engineering teachers in research labs at Georgia Tech for five weeks. The teachers will be embedded with engineers and scientists, working at the forefront of what’s called biologically inspired design, and creating a curriculum for the teachers to use in their classrooms.

“Lots of people think animals and what they do is insanely cool — and the internet agrees — which means we can engage interest in engineering by making a link to biology as a way to solve engineering challenges,” said Marc Weissburg, project leader and professor in the School of Biological Sciences. “The act of trying to see how an animal might help find a solution to a problem is a very creative process. It challenges the notion that engineering is boring. High school engineering experiences vary widely, but they generally do not include the most cutting-edge topics, like bio-inspired design, which gets people really excited,” he said.

For the next four years, Weissburg will collaborate with researchers Meltem Alemdar, Michael Helms, Roxanne Moore and Michael Ryan at Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing. They’ll create and assess units for 10th, 11th and 12th graders that explore bio-inspired design in the context of problems that are relatable to teenagers.

In particular, the researchers see their approach as a way to reach girls, who may not have considered engineering as a potential career. Weissburg pointed to data from the Center for Digital Education that showed 24% of male high school students expressed interest in engineering. For young women, the number was just 11%.

“Too often, engineering is depicted as applied math and science, which completely neglects how human-centered engineering is,” said Weissburg, who also co-directs the Center for Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech and is a Brook Byers Professor.

The project will generate a curriculum with design and build exercises, background materials for teachers, examples to spark discussion, tests, and other resources that can be used by teachers across the country. Researchers will examine how well the curriculum engages students, particularly those from groups underrepresented in engineering.

“States have different standards, and teacher goals and classes have to be responsive to their unique student audience,” Weissburg said. “Our series of resources, all of which will be online, will allow teachers to easily slot in material that fits for them. It will allow them to talk to us and each other about best practices.”

The research team has partnered with Gwinnett County Public Schools to identify the first group of teachers they’ll invite to participate. Weissburg said that will happen in late Spring 2020.

“Bio-inspired engineering is a unique way of thinking, and so we have to help the teachers understand how to encourage this in their students.”

Summary sentence

Four-year project will bring teachers into Georgia Tech labs and create new curriculum materials for them to use in class.

Summary

The way a ladybug folds its wings can help aerospace engineers design more compact satellites. Studying how ants dig tunnels could help us create our own tunnels more efficiently.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the $3 million effort will put high school engineering teachers in research labs at Georgia Tech for five weeks.

Georgia Tech represented at inaugural White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 22:25:44 +0000

Georgia Tech represented at inaugural White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence admin Wed, 12/14/2022 - 17:25

The White House Office of Science and Technology hosted a summit on Monday to launch a national slate of initiatives to build a more equitable, diversified, and inclusive science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) workforce and bolster the nation’s global competitiveness in these fields.

Lizanne DeStefano, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing, was among the more than 100 invited guests from U.S. government agencies, businesses, education, civic, nonprofit, community-based, and philanthropic organizations to attend the inaugural White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence.

“I was most excited to see how so many of the initiatives of Georgia Tech’s strategic plan are aligned with this federal commitment,” said DeStefano, also a professor of psychology in the College of Sciences. “Our plans to reach out to first-generation college students and their families, support K-12 STEMM teachers at all levels, create engaging STEMM enrichment activities for all Georgia students, and strengthen STEMM pathways are key to improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in STEMM.”

DeStefano, whose research interests include the evaluation and sustainability of innovative STEM educational programs and multi-site initiatives, had previously served as co-chair of the National Science Foundation’s STEM Education Advisory Committee. The group was charged with providing oversight and input for the National STEM Education Strategic Plan, involving 19 federal agencies that support STEM education at various levels.

“Since a portion of the plan addressed diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, this Summit was especially relevant to our work,” she said. “Returning to Washington, D.C. for this momentous occasion in making STEMM education equity and access a national priority was an honor. The state of Georgia is well-positioned to make a real change in this arena with its rich ecosystem of universities and colleges, industry, and community organizations.”

The one-day event included remarks from various government officials in support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to eliminate systematic barriers to entry in STEMM followed by a series of panel discussions with representatives from the public and private sectors who work in this space.

The summit concluded with a call to join the STEMM Opportunity Alliance (SOA), a new landmark organization led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The SOA is responsible for coordinating current and future national efforts with over 90 partners from industry, government, education, research, foundations, and organizations already committed to achieving shared goals for equity in STEMM by 2050.

The five action areas that will be addressed by the SOA are:

Ensure every person has opportunity to participate in STEMM,
Invest in the STEMM teacher pipeline,
Close the funding gap and invest in community colleges, minority-serving institutions, and community-based organizations,

Dismantle bias and discriminatory practices throughout the STEMM ecosystem, and
Close the STEMM information gap with best practices in evaluation, shared indicators of progress and meaningful disaggregation of data.

— Joëlle Walls, CEISMC Communications

Summary sentence

Summit launches national initiative to expand access and opportunities in STEM and medicine fields.

Summary

Summit launches national initiative to expand access and opportunities in STEM and medicine fields.

Dateline

Wed, 12/14/2022 - 12:00

Contact

Joëlle Walls

CEISMC Communications

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

cos-community

C-PIES

diversity in STEM

CEISMC

K-12 education

STEM teachers

Economic Development and Policy

federal relations

News room topics

Campus and Community

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High Schoolers From Around the State Explore STEM Majors and Careers Through New Georgia Tech Summer Institute

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Brook Byers Professor Weissburg Wins $3M Grant to Bring Biologically Inspired Design to High Schools

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Georgia Tech represented at inaugural White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence

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