Welcome to our page! This video highlights the goal and strategy of the Guitars Rocketry Robotics Advanced Technological Education Project (GRRATE). We welcome your comments and questions.

Does your work focus on increasing diversity or leveraging creativity to broaden participation? What strategies has your school used to tackle problems of under-representation in STEM? How have you designed your STEM programs to outreach to rural and under-resourced students? What are some other programs that you are aware of that use fine art or design to teach STEM skills?

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Wonderful topic and video! Such an important angle in STEM fields for entry level learners. I learned from watching! Thanks for this work. 

Thanks for bringing STEM to a new cadre of students.  I like the course title - it is broad enough so show STEM is everywhere.  How did you recruit them?  What happens next?  Is their guidance provided to steer these students toward a pathway, degree and career in STEM?  

The Guitar, Rocketry, Robotics, Advanced Technical Education project has been a really fun project to work with. Engaging students in challenging hands on learning has been rewarding as they learn about opportunities for their future that they never considered.  We started from the perspective that many of our rural, low income, and underrepresented students aren't engaging in STEM because they simply aren't aware of the opportunities for them.  There are also a lot of myths and stereotypes about who belongs in these fields.  We set out to debunk these myths and give students a rewarding experience that will open up opportunities for their future. 

Any project that starts with the word Guitars is on to something! What wonderful ideas for recruiting diverse audiences to STEM! Have you seen the Circuit Playground Express activity that allows kids to make guitars from a very simple circuit? Maybe some of your students can help other, younger students explore STEM too.

Another stellar example of how Santa Fe College works to help students realize their potential.  As someone who teaches at that center, I can tell you firsthand how excited those students are about this program; I have overheard them talking between classes and have promoted their engagement in our classes.  As those examples illustrate, this program acts as a bridge to bring those students into the college and help them go where they dream. I am very proud to be a part of such an innovative college dedicated to enabling student success.

I'm proud of my colleagues at SF for this outreach work and increasing access and interest in these fields. 

I'm enjoying these comments! Fun side note, I recorded the background music to this video on one of the guitars we built in this program :)

GRRATE is a great concept that I truly believe will have a lasting impact on our community. So much so, it inspired project Blast Off! (rocketry) for the SF My Brother's Keeper program 3rd grade mentoring initiative for 2020-2021.

I can't describe how much of an honor and a pleasure it's been to teach these students and watch them develop their problem solving, math and manual skills. Little did they know how much science, tech, engineering, and math was involved in building a guitar.

Thanks for your video and for the work behind it. 

It sounds like you are asking students about their experience and attitudes with surveys while they are in the course. How are you planning to follow up with them beyond their time in the course -- and what are you hoping to see them do?

Beautiful video, and what a fantastic project. I love the idea of using guitar building as a long-form lesson in multiple topics. So cool!

What a wonderful program and video. This is such a wonderful video. I'd love to learn more about this project in Gainesville! Do you also look at outcomes for participants with disabilities? 

Love this project!  Our work also focuses on broadening participation in STEM, specifically for previously incarcerated youth. Can you share the student assessment you are using?

 This project has a lot of potential. How scalable is it? Are there materials and curricula that others can get? How much does the PD and the course materials and staff to teach ot?

Thanks Maya. It does sound like there's lot still to be done. It would be great if this eventually ended up in classrooms all over. I know there are lots of schools looking for ways to integrate computing K-5.

More STEM curricula should be so engaging to students! I am also working on a project to bring an engaging CS curriculum to high school students, mainly in rural and urban, minoritized communities. We are offering a concurrent enrollment (CE) course that is taught by authorized high school teachers, so students will earn college credit. (More in this video). You mentioned that the GRRATE courses are dual enrollment, which I assume means taught at college campuses by college instructors. In rural areas, is transportation an issue for these students? What are the impacts on the high schools when students attend courses on the campuses? Could you imagine preparing high school teachers to offer this through CE or "college in high school" programs?

I appreciate the STEAM approach of the curriculum. I am curious about the next step for students who participate in the program. Can you also share little about what you're learning from evaluation about the impact on students' identities, or on other outcomes the project has identified. It sounds like this program is doing wonderful work in expanding access to STEM opportunities in places that may not have too many programs. 

Wow.  What a fun and engaging project based learning approach.  You mention so many STEM skills with matching outcomes for  measurement, basic algebra, physics of motion, tool use, lab safety, chemical knowledge, materials, crititcal thinking, experimentation, data analysis and problem solving. In addition to the pre / post tests evaluating changes in students' attitudes about STEM coursework and careers, does the program also evaluate learning outcomes on the aforementioned skills? Also, you mention the validated pre/post measure - can you expound a bit about that measure - was it internally/externally developed, and then validated via EFA/CFA?  A validated and reliable measure of student attitudes towards STEM is a great resources for so many projects!

Michael, thanks for viewing our video, and for the great feedback. 

Yes, we are evaluating learning outcomes. We taught the course in the classroom for the first time in Fall 2019, and again in Spring 2020. As with all new curriculum, we learned a lot during these two semesters. We are currently working though our curriculum verifying learning outcome alignment across the curriculum and ensuring activities and evaluations line up with the intended outcomes.  We are also reviewing for clarity of instructional design including universal design for learning principles. 

For the pre/post measure, we used the S-STEM (see discussion post above). It has been validated in at least two other settings (links to the publications are also included above).  It has not been validated in a community college environment.  On our radar for a future project is to replicate the validation process in our college.

As an academic advisor at one of the center locations that offers GRRATE classes, I have the opportunity to talk with students about this amazing program. The interest among students and community members is impressive, and many of the students who have participated have talked with me about embarking on new STEM career paths they did not previously consider. Thanks for your hard work on this project! I look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve.

Excellent video presentation!

As the GRRATE external evaluator, I have been most impressed with the spirit of collaboration that drives everything this team strives to accomplish.  Their video presentation is just another example of how the GRRATE team starts simple and then picks up steam through collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.  The team welcomes feedback and leverages that feedback to continuously improve their program. 

I enjoyed the video! It looks like a wonderful project!  Do you think it would be possible to establish this program as a high school course or course sequence?

What an inspiring project and video! What you are doing and how you are doing it is the way forward to diversify the STEM workforce. Congratulations! 

Awesome job!

Wow! What a great video and fantastic project! Are there opportunities for under-performing, perhaps under-stimulated, students to participate in the GRRATE program? While I am a higher ed educator, when I can identify such students in my own courses early in their academic pursuit, their trajectories through the program make 180s, which is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work. One of the most successful interactions I have in stimulating and motivating students who are underrepresented and appear to be struggling with coursework is to engage them in research projects that ease them into the act of research, while reinforcing the material they are learning in the coursework. However, one major hurdle to this is that this population often works nearly fulltime while attending University, which means they are already spread pretty thin from a time management perspective. I find that being more flexible with my time in guiding students with these circumstances to be most helpful in successfully retaining their interest and time, which translates to improvements in their coursework. Thank you for supporting underserved students and exciting them about STEM disciplines in such meaningful ways.

Audrey, thank you for your feedback and thoughts. One of my future visions for this course is to more purposely embed math, reading and writing skills that might have previously been considered remedial, or developmental.  Imagine if students can participate in a course like this and come out with the refresher needed to enter college level math, or to be better prepared for their other college study requirements.  It may take more than one course, but could be doable in a two course sequence.

Love the concept of guitars, rockets and robotics. What an exciting project and from the comment from one of the other posters, the students think so too! Other than the visit to NASA, are there opportunities for students to visit other businesses to see a suite of STEM careers that relate to the skills they are developing in the program?

I enjoyed your video very much!  Your project looks like tons of fun for both students and faculty.  I saw that some of these students did compete in Lego Robotics competitions.  Was there any additional competition built into this project?  I believe that competition can foster greater student commitment and buy-in as well as pride in their accomplishments.  For example, do you give awards for best-looking guitar?  Or for best sounding guitar, etc.?

I also think it's wonderful that you are working with the local employers.  I am sure this will be a great resource for your students as well as for these employers.

I like the awards angle that you suggested.  Students really take the artistic component of their guitars and their rockets especially seriously when working on their projects. We should include an award voted on my their classmates for "most artistic" rocket or guitar or robot! Maybe we can get our students to create the award using our 3D printer and, of course, make a class project out of making the award. Great stuff!