A Taste of the Future: The Summer Engineering Program

Abstract

The problem of increasing engineering enrollment of female students to meet the national need has been of great concern to engineering educators. This paper presents the experience gained from the 1993 summer engineering program. Thirty female high school students in grade 11 participated. The program teaches engineering design through a product realization process and introduced engineering disciplines through laboratory work and field trips. With a stimulating first experience in engineering, the participating students built up their confidence. Evaluation results show that the program has been extremely successful in encouraging female students to consider choosing the path to an engineering career.