Development of an At-home Metal Corrosion Laboratory Experiment for STEM Outreach in Biomaterials During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many universities and outreach programs have switched to online learning platforms, which inhibits students from completing formative hands-on experiments. To address this, we developed a series of at-home experiments for undergraduate engineering students and adapted one of these experiments for outreach purposes. This experiment was well received by middle school students in the Young Eisner Scholars (YES) Program and resulted in significant learning gains by pre/post-test assessment. Additionally, students showed enhanced attitudes toward science after completing their at-home experiments, as measured by pre/post-surveys. These results motivate the use of similar at-home experiments with virtual instruction to remotely teach engineering concepts to diverse, underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.