Impact of a summer research program for high school students on their intent to pursue a STEM career: Overview, goals, and outcomes

Abstract

The Young Scholars (YS) program at the National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT) at UT Austin, was a seven week long summer research experience designed for high school students entering 10-12th grade. The main goal of the program was to provide young women and underrepresented minority high school students with a laboratory research experience and inspire them to enter college and pursue STEM degree s. Each summer, students from local high schools were selected to participate in laboratory research as scholars under the supervision of a mentoring graduate student and faculty member. Each team composed of two YSs and their graduate mentor tackled problems in nanomanufacturing and made significant contributions to ongoing research projects. At the end of the program, each high school student gave a final presentation of the results to family members, teachers, graduate students and faculty. Over seven years, the YS program has hosted a total of 53 students, among them 56% women and 60% underrepresented minorities (URM). In preparation for their research project, the YSs spent their first week participating in a'boot camp" that included a welcome orientation, short courses in fundamentals of nanotechnologies, basic concepts in engineering, laboratory safety training, Innovators' DNA skills' seminar, and an introduction to research. Following their bootcamp, students were expected to work on their project, performing original research under the supervision of their graduate mentor, read reference material and maintain a laboratory notebook. To supplement students' research experience, YSs participated in technical and career development seminars, field trips to local nanotechnology companies, and social activities. Quality assessment of the program was performed by analyzing responses from pre- and post-surveys of the 2016 to 2019 cohorts. The main focus of this analysis is investigating the satisfaction of the participants and the impact of the program in increasing interest in a STEM career. The data analysis shows increasing awareness among participants of the many career opportunities in STEM and confidence in their ability to pursue a STEM career. Other aspects assessed are participants' confidence in conducting research and presenting findings, using lab tools, understanding scientific articles and guest lecturers' seminars. Among the 39 YSs who graduated high school to date, 24 YSs are pursuing engineering degrees, 14 are majoring in non-engineering STEM disciplines, and 1 has attended trade school and is now interning at Samsung Semiconductor. These results confirm that the YS program has been extremely successful in achieving its above stated goals. Getting published; I was not expecting it and during the last week of the program it was a surprise; I really didn't think I would get it but it was a process and now I realize how important it was¦my college counselor said it would take me a long way with college acceptance (YS, Post-Survey 2016) ¦ the program gave me an opportunity to experience college through my work and my Mentor.