2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Background and Motivation: Outreach programs are an important tool for universities to recruit students and to help pre-college students see themselves as engineers. However, results from meta-analyses show that there are inconsistencies in how well outreach programs achieve their goals. Thus, there are questions about what aspects of outreach programs result in positive outcomes and what types of participants particularly benefit from participating.

Program Details: (Program name), is a one-week engineering summer program hosted at (Institution). Participants explore different engineering disciplines through 1) 2-4 multi-day hands-on labs taught by professors, 2) a design, test, build project, and 3) social events that let them bond with undergraduate engineering students and each other. Seven hundred fifteen students participated in (program name) 2025, ranging in ages from 12-17 and came from across the state of (state).

Study purpose and research questions: This study’s purpose is to evaluate the impact of (program name). Based on gaps in the literature and discussions with camp leadership, we developed research questions that investigated the impact of prior exposure to engineering, length of time in lab, and balance of lecture and hands-on activities on (program name) outcomes.

Methods: Pre-program, post-program, and post-lab surveys evaluated the impact of lab design and students’ prior exposure to engineering on (program name) outcomes. Outcomes assessed on the surveys include engineering interest, intent to apply to engineering, and how participants felt like they fit in with those who do/like engineering. Reponses were converted to three- or five-point Likert scales depending on the question. Results were analyzed using paired t-tests, ANOVA with Tukey-HSD follow ups, or Cohen’s d tests depending on the research question.

Results: Post-lab survey results indicate that activity-focused labs led to higher interest in engineering (p < 0.05) and intent to become an engineer (p < 0.05). There was also a statistically significant increase in engineering interest based on the length of the lab (p > 0.05). Program surveys indicate that students who first became interested in engineering in Middle School or later were more likely to apply to engineering and feel like they fit in with others compared to those who first became interested in engineering in Elementary School or earlier (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: (Program name) positively impacted participants in some outcomes but not all. Preliminary recommendations for developing (program name) include prioritizing admittance based on when students report first becoming interested in engineering and running more varied single day labs versus fewer more in-depth labs. For other outreach programs, this study contributes evidence that participant-specific context and program-specific context matters when designing effective outreach experiences.