CincySTEM Urban Initiative: Designing pathways to science and engineering disciplines through project-based learning

The CincySTEM Urban Initiative is a program that integrates Project-based Learning (PBL) into 9
^th
and 10
^th
grade classes using educational technology that is provided to teachers and students for use both in classroom and offsite. Five CincySTEM projects were developed and incorporated into an urban and minority-serving high school. This paper presents an overview of the five projects, a case study on one of the CincySTEM projects, and preliminary evaluation results pertaining to impact of the initiative on students' attitude towards STEM majors. The paper also proposes a longitudinal assessment strategy to study academic pathways that students pursue post high school graduation.