Improved Retention and Other Impacts Benefiting Engineering Technology Undergraduates Involved in High School Outreach

Abstract

Retention of engineering technology undergraduates remains a problem, especially for students from underrepresented groups in the field. In this paper we report on the impact that performing outreach has had on engineering technology students involved in an outreach program focused on educating high school students on the ways engineers help the world. To do this, we interviewed all of the past and current undergraduate outreach participants and performed qualitative analysis. Specifically, we studied how they believe their participation has affected their interest in remaining in an engineering technology major, their likelihood of going to graduate school, and their interest in future involvement in K-12 STEM education programs. Introduction and Literature Review Retention of engineering technology undergraduates remains a problem, especially for students from underrepresented groups in our field. Various studies show that in the vicinity of 40% of students who enroll in engineering-type majors do not graduate with an engineering degree 1-4 . At Southern Polytechnic State University, only 30.9% of first-time freshman entering the school of Engineering Technology and Management (ETM) in Fall 2006 had graduated with an ETM degree by Spring 2012. These graduation rates tend to be even lower for females and for black or Hispanic students 3 demographics already underrepresented in the majors. Improving these statistics is important to meet the need for engineers in the years ahead. In addition, motivating promising undergraduate students to pursue graduate study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields is a desirable outcome. Therefore, in this research we study the positive impact that involvement in a high school outreach effort has had on the undergraduates performing that outreach. There is a large body of literature on the impact of undergraduate research experiences on their participants. There is strong evidence for improvements in retention as well as in the percentage of students who pursue graduate degrees. For example, a large study of nearly 15,000 undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation 5 found that undergraduate students who participate in hands-on research are more likely to pursue advanced degrees in STEM fields. In a study of factors that promote student retention and success, Nagda et al. 6 have shown that undergraduate research increases retention rates in science and engineering programs, particularly for African-Americans and sophomores. Lopatto 7 surveyed more than 1,100 science undergraduate students who had participated in undergraduate research and found that 83% intended to continue in science-related graduate education, and that the percentage was the same for underrepresented groups in STEM fields. In another study of 36 undergraduate minorities who had participated in a summer research program, Morley et al. 8 found 92% of the students either were enrolled in a graduate program or had plans to enroll within two years. Zydney et al. 9 studied a group of their university‟s alumni, matching a set of undergraduate research program participants to a set of individuals who resembled the participants except for the fact that they did not participate in undergraduate research. They also found that alumni with research experience were more likely to pursue graduate degrees. There is also a significant literature on the varied successes of outreach programs at recruiting undergraduates. However, little research has been published on the impact that performing the outreach has had on the undergraduate students that are performing the outreach. In an exception, Karp et al. 10 implemented an elementary outreach program using Lego NXT and tracked the retention of undergraduates involved as mentors/engineering instructors to the elementary students. While the study did not collect quantitative data, the authors believed that the engineering students gained self-esteem and improved their problem-solving and communications skills and that their participation also positively influenced their perception of their choice of major. Switzer and Benson 11 also studied the impact of outreach activities on undergraduate students performing them, specifically as it pertained to their motivation. One hundred sixty students were involved in creating physical models and activities to demonstrate math, physics or chemistry concepts to high school students. In this case, a survey instrument was used to assess the students‟ attitude toward their engineering program both before and after a three-week design project. No statistically significant change in motivation over time was found, though the authors believe the short time horizon was a factor. In this study, we attempt to address this research gap and gather further information about the impact that performing outreach has on undergraduate students.