International Conference on Engineering Education – ICEE 2007 Assessment of High School Students ’ Exposure to Engineering via a Summer Camp

week-long summer residential program. The intent of the summer camp is to allow high school students an opportunity to learn, understand, and participate in various phases of engineering projects and to offer them a taste of college life. The program is aimed at students entering their junior or senior years of high school, who have an interest in hands-on learning about engineering as a profession. The activities focus on various phases of the engineering design process, and student’s team-playing and team-leading abilities. Students are introduced to the different engineering disciplines, career prospective, and job opportunities by the interaction with faculty and undergraduate students from Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Computer Science. By attending the summer camp, Gannon believes that students will be more equipped to make an informed decision in their choice of career. The camp has been well received during its six years and has served as a recruiting tool. The paper outlines the camp objectives, planning process, recruitment process and results. Based on the exit surveys results, modifications have been made to the original camp structure to introduce new areas in order to allow students experience different fields of engineering and improve their experience and participation. A critique to the program is presented that includes its demonstrated benefits, a discussion of the lessons learned to date from the experience, and recommendations on how to make it even more effective in the future