The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Students’ Interest in STEM Based on Their Age (Work-in-Progress)

Trinity Borland; Samuel Bast; Murad Mahmoud; Cristian Allen; Kurt Becker

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division Poster Session
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41202
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41202
Download Count: 203

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Paper Authors

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Murad Mahmoud Wartburg College

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Murad is an Assistant Professor at the Engineering Science Department at Wartburg College. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Utah State University. Research interests include recruitment into STEM, diversity in STEM as well pedagogy and instruction.

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Trinity Borland Wartburg College

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Trinity started off at Wartburg College with an Engineering Major and now she is a fourth-year almost done with a Secondary Mathematics Education Major. Her research interests are how to teach STEM fields more effectively and how to motivate STEM students.

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Samuel Bast

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Sam Bast is a current 4th-year student at Wartburg College. He is getting his Major in Engineering with a concentration of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. He is also minoring in Computer Science.

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Cristian Allen Wartburg College

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Kurt Becker Utah State University - Engineering Education

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Kurt Becker, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Engineering Education, College of Engineering, Utah State University

Kurt Becker is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University. His research includes engineering design thinking, systems engineering, engineering education professional development, technical training, and adult learning cognition. He is currently working on National Science Foundation funded projects exploring engineering design thinking and systems thinking, a USAID funded project in Egypt, “Center of Excellence in Water”, and Department of Education funded GEARUP projects in the area of STEM education related to engineering education. He has extensive international experience working on technical training and engineering projects funded by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Countries where he has worked include Armenia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Thailand. In addition, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in engineering education for the department.

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Abstract

The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Students’ Interest in STEM Based on Their Age (Work-in-Progress)

In this paper, we examine the differences between students in 7th, 8th and 9th grades with regards to how attending an engineering summer camp affects their interest in STEM. Data was collected over the course of three years and three summer camps held at a local state university. This project was funded by the Department of Education as part of the GEARUP program. As a part of the camp, students engaged in various activities involving engineering research. The activities focused on various topics including; water and environmental engineering, electrical and civil engineering. Activities included building a water filter, taking water samples and measuring water properties, building simple sensors to measure air quality, among others.

Data was collected through pre and post camp surveys. The data included questions about students’ interest in STEM, the factors that influence that interest, as well as their parents and friends’ perceptions about STEM. Furthermore, the student participant parents were surveyed about their education, income, and their perception of math, science, and engineering. The students also indicated their age and grade. While the parents did not attend the camp, they were involved through viewing a blog that was updated daily to include activities of the camp as well as pictures and comments from the students’ journals.

This paper is part of a longitudinal study, and data was collected and analyzed each year. The analysis involves both quantitative and qualitative data which was collected simultaneously. Both streams of data are analyzed concurrently in a mixed methods research design to offer a deeper understanding of what influences student interest in STEM. The results are broken down based on age and grade.

Quantitative data is analyzed using a statistical analysis software. ANOVA tests, two-sample t-tests, and possibly non-parametric tests (depending on the results from the diagnostic tests on normality and population variance) will be used to determine if there was a statistically significant increase in interest (after the STEM camp) among the students with respect to age (grade levels 7th,8th,9th). If an increase in interest is present in some groups, we determine if the increase is significantly greater for any of the groups when compared with each other. These tests have the potential to provide evidence that the STEM camp was more effective at increasing interest among different age groups.

Qualitative data is analyzed using MaxQDA, a qualitative software package, to code for common themes in the data. The quantitative and qualitative data is then combined and presented in a mixed methods format.

The knowledge gained from this research could help in designing future camps to better align with the different needs of the different age groups. Future research will incorporate different age groups not included in this work.

Citation
Format

Mahmoud, M., & Borland, T., & Bast, S., & Allen, C., & Becker, K. (2022, August), The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Students’ Interest in STEM Based on Their Age (Work-in-Progress) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41202

TY - CPAPER
AB - The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Students’ Interest in STEM Based on Their Age (Work-in-Progress)

In this paper, we examine the differences between students in 7th, 8th and 9th grades with regards to how attending an engineering summer camp affects their interest in STEM. Data was collected over the course of three years and three summer camps held at a local state university. This project was funded by the Department of Education as part of the GEARUP program.
As a part of the camp, students engaged in various activities involving engineering research. The activities focused on various topics including; water and environmental engineering, electrical and civil engineering. Activities included building a water filter, taking water samples and measuring water properties, building simple sensors to measure air quality, among others.

Data was collected through pre and post camp surveys. The data included questions about students’ interest in STEM, the factors that influence that interest, as well as their parents and friends’ perceptions about STEM. Furthermore, the student participant parents were surveyed about their education, income, and their perception of math, science, and engineering. The students also indicated their age and grade. While the parents did not attend the camp, they were involved through viewing a blog that was updated daily to include activities of the camp as well as pictures and comments from the students’ journals.

This paper is part of a longitudinal study, and data was collected and analyzed each year. The analysis involves both quantitative and qualitative data which was collected simultaneously. Both streams of data are analyzed concurrently in a mixed methods research design to offer a deeper understanding of what influences student interest in STEM. The results are broken down based on age and grade.

Quantitative data is analyzed using a statistical analysis software. ANOVA tests, two-sample t-tests, and possibly non-parametric tests (depending on the results from the diagnostic tests on normality and population variance) will be used to determine if there was a statistically significant increase in interest (after the STEM camp) among the students with respect to age (grade levels 7th,8th,9th). If an increase in interest is present in some groups, we determine if the increase is significantly greater for any of the groups when compared with each other. These tests have the potential to provide evidence that the STEM camp was more effective at increasing interest among different age groups.

Qualitative data is analyzed using MaxQDA, a qualitative software package, to code for common themes in the data. The quantitative and qualitative data is then combined and presented in a mixed methods format.

The knowledge gained from this research could help in designing future camps to better align with the different needs of the different age groups. Future research will incorporate different age groups not included in this work.

AU - Murad Mahmoud
AU - Trinity Borland
AU - Samuel Bast
AU - Cristian Allen
AU - Kurt Becker
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - The Effect of Summer Engineering Camps on Students’ Interest in STEM Based on Their Age (Work-in-Progress)
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41202
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41202
ER -