2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Currently, there are over one million STEM job openings without qualified applicants in the United States and the field of Biomedical Engineering (BME) is projected to grow 10% from 2021 to 2031 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). To meet growing BME workforce needs, it is essential to support initial student interests in STEM to aid students’ decision making. One strategy that has seen significant success in encouraging students to pursue STEM and engineering fields has been high school internships that engage students in authentic STEM environments (Adjapong et al., 2016; Patel et al, 2021). High school internships are especially impactful for underrepresented minority (URM) female students in STEM (Kusimo et al 2018). Prior research has shown that these internship opportunities can increase students’ sense of self-efficacy in STEM fields, give students insight into career paths they might not otherwise be exposed to, and increase students’ interest in and pursuit of STEM-related majors and careers (Adjiapong, et al 2016; Kusimo et al, 2018).

During the summer 2022, two BME faculty specializing in tissue engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, hosted three students from Lowell High School to engage in a summer research opportunity. The goal of this research experience was to provide students with equitable access to high-quality educational experiences to prepare them for postsecondary education and potential careers in STEM disciplines. In addition, students had the opportunity to make meaningful experiential connections with some of their chemistry, physics, and biology curricula, thus, bolstering their future engagement in these subjects. This 8-week summer research experience was organized in two unique phases. In the first four weeks, students shadowed undergraduate and/or students during research activities and were trained on basic laboratory skills, cell culture techniques, biomaterial processing, as well as multi-well microelectrode array recordings for electrophysiological data analysis. In the last four weeks of the program, the high school students were asked to independently develop an experimental procedure for an alginate-based cell bioink, with the inclusion of PMMA fluorescently labeled particles as surrogate for cell in suspension. At the conclusion of the program, cognitive interviews were conducted with the high school interns, their parents, and their undergraduate student mentors to evaluate the efficacy of the summer program in promoting students’ interests in STEM and to identify the factors that may affect students’ success in high school summer research programs. Interview results will highlight the unique relationship between high school students, their parents, their undergraduate student mentors, and the faculty involved with research. Results from this paper may indicate special considerations to educate future design of high school research experiences in STEM fields.

Works Cited
Adjapong, Edmund S., et al. (2016). Empowering girls of color through authentic science internships. Journal of Urban Learning Teaching and Research, 12, 24–34.
Kusimo, Abisola, et al. (2018). Effects of research and internship experiences on engineering task self-efficacy on engineering students through an intersectional lens. 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 23814 https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--30363.
Patel, Anushka, et al. (2021). Summer research internships prepare high school students for 21st century biomedical careers. The Journal of STEM Outreach, 4, (1),https://doi.org/10.15695/jstem/v4i1.13.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers, In: Occupational Outlook Handbook . U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/biomedical-engineers.htm (visited November 21, 2022).