PR2EPS: Preparation, Recruitment, Retention and Excellence in the Physical Sciences, Including Engineering. A Report on the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Science Summer Camps

Abstract

Now in its fourth year, PR2EPS is a National Science Foundation funded initiative designed to recruit high school students to attend college majoring in the physical sciences, including engineering and secondary science education, and to help ensure their retention within the program until graduation. A central feature of the recruitment effort is a free one-week residential summer engineering and science camp for high school students. This report describes the rationale for using a camp as a recruitment tool as well as the camp structure and engineering/science activities of the camp. The results of pre and post surveys (n = 135) designed to assess the campers’ selfperceptions as scientists and assessments of the camp itself are provided, as well as attitudinal type survey data collected more than a year following the camp experience. Faculty similarly concerned with motivating high school students to major in the physical sciences or engineering should find the report useful.