Influencing factors in identifying the optimal age for conducting STEM outreach

Over the years, a constant growth in the need for more STEM professionals has been seen in order to take on our society's more advanced problems. To address this need, a steady growth in STEM-based outreach has been established to inspire young minds to fill this need for future STEM professionals. These programs can be found in a variety of formats, delivering a wide range of content and targeting specific demographics; all with the goal to stimulate interest and gain excitement in STEM. The goal of this paper is to stimulate discussion on how to best optimize STEM outreach by identifying age ranges that may have the most long term impact in developing STEM professionals. This will be undertaken by applying multiple System Engineering philosophies and tools. Such as constructing a conception of the target system, a review of the stakeholders involved, and discussion on the systemic forces involved in STEM outreach. The overall purpose of this paper is to further the discussion and identify additional areas of research that can aid in fully understanding how STEM outreach can be optimized for each grade level.