Understanding Obstacles in the STEM Career Pipeline through System Dynamics Modeling

The importance of student achievement in STEM fields remains a key aspect of academic and career success affecting society. Understanding the obstacles and setbacks which affect students is a key aspect to minimizing attrition losses observed in STEM career pathways for underrepresented student demographics. Through developing a system dynamics modeling and simulation framework and evaluating survey responses specifically related to offsetting events in the careerization pipeline, insights can be gained into mitigation strategies. Analysis of system dynamics modeling outputs demonstrates the detrimental effects of obstacles to student achievement; however, elucidating mechanisms present in counterexamples suggests that bolstering student resilience is achievable. Implementing active learning and project-based learning strategies with the specific goal of enabling failure and student development to overcome initial failures can foster development of key individual student traits and behaviors. This approach can be combined with events such as family STEM nights, focus on gateway curriculum that enables student self-efficacy, and implementing near-peer mentoring strategies. The modeling and simulation framework results show that promising improvements can be achieved with resources available across the education and outreach ecosystem, providing substantial benefits to all students with STEM aspirations and to society as a whole.