Chapter 4: Culturally Relevant Project-Based Learning for STEM Education: Implications and Examples for Urban Schools

The representation of traditionally underrepresented populations (i.e., women, African Americans, and Hispanic students) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions is consistently lower than that of their Caucasian and Asian counterparts (Byars-Winston, Estrada, & Howard, 2008). College and university enrollment data suggest that while more students from diverse racial backgrounds pursue undergraduate degrees in STEM fields, African American and Hispanic students disproportionately failed to complete degrees in STEM fields (American Education Council, 2006; Anderson & Kim, 2006; National Science Board, 2007). Specifically, underrepresented students such as African Americans and Hispanics represent 28.5% of the U.S. population and almost 40% of the nation’s K–12 enrollment, but only 18% of those receiving STEM undergraduate degrees, 9% of the college-educated workers in science and engineering, and 5% of the STEM doctorate recipients (Hrabowski, 2012, p. 325). Increasing the number of successful STEM professionals from these underrepresented populations is essential to decreasing our overreliance on a foreign-born workforce (Passel & Cohn, 2008). Early awareness is essential to reversing the current enrollment and completion trends for underrepresented students.