Stimulating an Interest in Engineering Through an "Explore Engineering and Technology" Summer Camp for High School Students

摘要

Abstract Stimulating an Interest in Engineering Through an “Explore Engineering and Technology” Summer Camp for High School StudentsAbstractAttracting a larger number of young people to Science, Technology, Engineering andMathematics (STEM) careers is critical to the United States being able to remain globallycompetitive. One increasingly popular approach by colleges and universities to this end is tooffer on-campus STEM summer camps to high school and middle school students. OurUniversity has offered one-week Robotics summer camps for high school and middle schoolstudents every summer since 2009. The Robotics camps fit naturally with the large number ofFIRST Robotics teams in our area whose students welcome the opportunity to continue learningand practicing skills in the off-season. For the 2013 high school summer camp however,engineering faculty in the Division decided to broaden the scope of the camp to introduce awider population of students to engineering and technology.The “Explore Engineering and Technology” camp attracted a full group of 27 students in its firstrun, out of which 8 were female. The one-week camp was structured around differentengineering disciplines – civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, and optical engineering. A totalof nine instructional modules, each three-and-a-half-hour long, were developed and taught byengineering faculty during the camp. Groups of students rotated through morning and afternoonsessions conducted in our engineering laboratories. They were given an introduction tofundamental engineering principles followed by hands-on experimentation in the lab. In additionto the faculty members teaching the program, a couple of undergraduate engineering studentswere present to help and mentor, which turned out to be a great learning experience for them. Toconclude the camp, participants were asked to choose one of the modules from which to prepareand give an oral presentation during the last session. A competition for the top threepresentations was set-up and awards were given.The paper discusses the content of the modules and the results of the camp as evidenced bystudent presentations and student surveys. The camp was successful in increasing students’interest and confidence in pursuing careers in engineering and technology. Lessons were alsolearned from the first offering of the camp leading to plans for future improvement. Theseinclude development of a Workbook/Lab Manual summarizing all modules for students to useduring the camp as well as keep for future reference. Future plans also include adding newactivities and experiments to accommodate both new and returning students.