Soaring Futures: Exploring Aerospace Engineering Pathways

K-12 STEAM education

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

CBMLA understands that there is a need for strong committed leadership and guidance to address the social, emotional, academic and psychological development of Black youth. We promote education as a first priority and recognize that STEM education is highly important in today's technology-driven world. We also understand that diversity in STEM fields leads to more innovative solutions and better represents our society, however, data indicates less than 4% of engineers in the United States are Black men and Black women are less represented at 1.6% according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The gap is even more pronounced in certain specialties, such as aerospace engineering. Schools in predominantly Black communities often have less access to advanced STEM courses, and these schools are also more likely to have less experienced teachers in STEM subjects and fewer resources for hands-on learning experiences like well-equipped labs or computer facilities.

The grant will support "Soaring Futures: Exploring Aerospace Engineering Pathways," a CBMLA initiative designed to address the lack of representation in the sciences. This program aims to inspire and equip African American students with the skills necessary for success in the technology-driven world of aerospace engineering as a complement to our group mentoring programs that address the social, emotional, academic, and psychological development of Black youth. The Soaring Futures pilot program will provide a four-unit aerospace career pathway curriculum for 10-20 African American male students who have completed CBMLA’s Welcome to Manhood program. The curriculum will cover Introduction to Aerospace, Aerospace Design, Space, and Alternative Applications. Students will experience hands-on projects and will make a final “white paper” presentation on a design idea. Understanding the critical need for strong leadership and guidance, the classroom experience will be augmented with guest speakers who look like the students we serve, and are recruited through outreach to a multigenerational spectrum of role models. Field trips to local aerospace-related sites such as the Carson Airport, California Science Center, Samuel Oschin Planetarium at Griffith Observatory, and Lockheed Martin Skunkworks will further enhance learning through real-world exposure.

With success, CBMLA will scale the program, potentially enrolling more CBMLA mentees who attend Los Angeles Unified School District public and charter schools in South L.A., Compton, Carson, and the San Fernando Valley. Additionally, female mentees in CBMLA’s Welcome to Womanhood program in Lancaster could be the first cohort of girls in the Concerned Black Men national organization to receive STEM programming, highlighting Los Angeles County within the organization network. Our goal is to inspire more African American youth to pursue aerospace or other engineering careers. The success of our work produces emerging leaders, young African American men and women, who possess the mindset to give back to their communities, and through CBMLA’s wholistic youth development programs have gained the life skills, leadership skills, sense of civic responsibility, and community pride that will make Los Angeles County a better place to live, thrive, and connect.

A learning rubric measures the degree to which the student shows mastery of four categories in a final presentation: 1) Content – the degree to which the student states the main points and details of the design project; 2) Organization - a logical sequence with an outline, introduction, and conclusion; 3) Delivery – effective and creative delivery of information and staying on topic; and 4) Preparation – presentation using pictures, graphs, computer models, etc, that are interesting and vivid. The rubric is accompanied by a mastery grading scale ranging from 1 point to 4 points. Other measures of success will take student, parent, facilitator, program advisor and program director feedback into consideration for quality improvement, particularly given the fact that this is a pilot project. Persistence in the program and observations of changes in habits, attitude, and expression of career goals are all important metrics as well as students' improvement in overall grades and attendance.