Assessing Participant Engagement In A Middle School Outreach Program

Engineering A Future (EAF), an annual outreach program for girls in grades five through eight, has been held at Tennessee Technological University since 2003. The program is aimed at introducing these young women to careers in engineering. Sponsored by Tennessee Tech, the Society of Women Engineers, the American Association of University Women, the Tennessee Space Grant Consortium, Girl Scouts of Cumberland Valley, and local industry, participation has grown each year. In the day-long program, each group of eight to twelve middle-school girls rotates through four 45-minute, hands-on, engineering-focused activities. High school and college students serve as volunteer guides, leading their assigned group from one activity to the next. In response to participant evaluations and adult volunteer suggestions, program changes have been made each year. Prior to 2006, there had been no formal attempt to recruit the help of high school students. However, with the first EAF participants reaching high school age, it was time to engage them in the day activities. To provide a meaningful experience for the volunteer guides in EAF 2006, they were asked to serve as observers to study participant engagement. This paper provides an overview of the findings from the engagement study, including the impact of time of day on participant engagement, characteristics of activities with the highest engagement, correlation with end-ofday participant evaluations, and lessons learned.