Does a Middle School Intervention for Girls Have Long-Lasting Differential Effects on Their Perceptions of and Participation in Engineering? (research to practice)

This article reports progress in an ongoing longitudinal study of Camp Reach, a two-week residential summer camp at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for rising seventh-grade girls that emphasizes the social context of engineering and includes follow-up activities through high school. Participants in Camp Reach are chosen from the applicant pool by random lottery, creating a control group with similar attributes as program participants. Women in both groups are contacted in the years following their high school graduation to explore possible long-term differential effects of the program. The data reported in this article are for program years 20022006 (N=124) and focus on the study participants’ perceptions of engineering and their engineering self-efficacy, and on the relative impact of various program elements from the viewpoint of alumnae. Results indicate more positive and accurate perceptions of engineering among participants of Camp Reach who sustained their contact with the program and by those in the Control group who later participated in other WPI programs. From the perspectives of study participants, the program elements with the most lasting positive impacts include returning to the program as a staff member, the use of role models, and the teamwork component of Camp Reach.