Chapter 8: The Impact of a Science Fair on the High School Students’ Feelings of Self-Efficacy in Stem

The purpose of this present action research study was to describe secondary students’ feelings of self-efficacy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through a curriculum linked to a science fair project, the teacher-researcher focused on student-participants’ perceptions of perseverance and task completion linked to STEM courses and postsecondary STEM careers. A Likert scale pretest (n = 44) and posttest (n = 33) based on Bandura’s model of four categories of self-efficacy (mastery experience, vicarious experiences, verbal/social persuasion, and emotional/psychological states) was administered to middle to low income students at a high school in Pennsylvania in the fall of 2018). Data was also collected through semi-structured interviews, informal interviews, teacher journal entries, observational field notes, and concept maps.