2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

ENGage LSU is a yearly event designed to expose middle school students to different fields and research areas of engineering to spark an interest in possible future careers. This single-day field trip experience invited students to tour several labs and facilities in the College of Engineering and to participate in hands-on activities conducted by university faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. Students were split into groups of 10-20 and rotated through five different demonstrations and activities with a heavy focus on basic and applied research associated with biomedical, chemical, and environmental engineering, such as designing a scale model of microscale technologies to capture cancer cells, examining the properties of polymers, and observing water filtration methods. There were three iterations of this event starting in 2017 with an average participation of 100 middle school students per year. Results from pre- and post-surveys showed that 22% of participating students increased their interest in engineering and over half increased confidence in their ability to become engineers and their desire to pursue a career in engineering. The 2020 offering was slated to be the largest ENGage LSU event up to then, but unfortunately, the event had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not wanting to lose momentum and knowing that ENGage LSU was having a positive impact on local students, the authors decided to host a virtual event in 2021 due to continued limitations on in-person gatherings and began planning how to make this transition. Sixteen faculty members volunteered to participate—half of them opted to develop and lead a hands-on activity and the other half performed a demonstration live or asynchronously. 308 students were registered to participate from seven middle schools in four different school districts. Classroom sets of materials for the hands-on activities were distributed to the participating schools prior to the event so that the students could perform the activities while following along virtually. Pre- and post-survey analyses revealed that 19% of these students increased their interest in engineering, 27% increased their confidence in becoming an engineer, and 28% increased their desire to pursue an engineering career. While these trends matched what was observed in the previous in-person events, the amount of increase in some categories was lower. Lessons learned from this virtual transition included the need for better communication between the university and middle schools regarding technology/software availability and the need for more teacher oversight in some of the classrooms during the event. Even with the return to traditional in-person gatherings, the authors were inspired by the success of the event to potentially offer future virtual experiences. Applying the lessons learned, a virtual event would broaden the impact and accessibility, allowing middle schools with limited transportation options and from a wider geographic area to participate.