Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E3) Summer Teacher Program: Analysis of Student Surveys Regarding Engineering Awareness

Abstract

Ongoing efforts across the U.S. to encourage K-12 students to consider engineering careers have been motivated by concerns that the workforce pipeline for this profession is shrinking. Enlightening K-12 teachers about engineering is one strategy to encourage student interest in the discipline. The Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E3) for Teachers Summer Research Program at Texas A&M University engages high school math and science teachers in an engineering research experience. Since 2003, the E3 program has hosted over 190 teachers, most of whom teach in low socioeconomic status (SES) schools with a high percentage of minority students. The mission of the E3 program is to educate and excite teachers about the field of engineering so that they can introduce engineering concepts to their students and encourage them to consider a career in engineering. During the summer program, teachers are involved in: (1) hands-on participation in current engineering research, (2) activities to broaden their awareness of engineering and career opportunities for their students, and (3) development of engineering-related lesson plans for implementation in their high school classroom. As part of their lesson plan implementation, teachers from the 2009-2013 cohorts were required to administer pre- and post-surveys to their students. The identical survey was administered to the students before and after classroom implementation of the E3 lesson/activity. The survey included five questions regarding engineering awareness and three questions regarding college plans. The survey was designed to determine if the students’ exhibited an increased awareness of engineering after implementation of the E3 lesson/activity and if there was any progress in forming college plans (specifically as it pertains to engineering.)

This paper presents the student survey findings. Forty-six (46) teachers from Cohorts 2009-2013 administered the pre- and post-survey to their students (2,263 total). For the “engineering awareness†questions, there were large differences in the pre- vs post-survey responses that indicated increased awareness of engineering. Depending on the question, the percentages ranged from 20% to 113%. Regarding increased interest in considering an engineering major in college, in the pre-survey, 32.4% of the students indicated interest in pursuing an engineering major (“agree†or “strongly agree†responses). In the post-survey, that percentage rose to 40.6%. These findings demonstrate the value in exposing high school students to engineering to create awareness for students who might not have considered this career path.