Program evaluation of a high school summer bridge program in chemistry and engineering

Abstract

In this paper we evaluate a summer college preparatory program for New York City high school students housed at Bronx Community College. The program was titled “Introduction to Energy Technology” and it focused on teaching chemistry and engineering skills in the context of traditional and alternative energy applications. The program has run for two summers, in 2017 and 2018, and has had 35 students participate. During the full day, six-week program, students attended chemistry and engineering lectures, Excel sessions, math tutoring, and a daily afternoon laboratory. The calendar also included a college panel and an energy plant tour. In addition to the learning objectives of the course, a set of 30 specific skills were targeted and students self-evaluated their confidence in these skills at the beginning and end of the program. Students were also surveyed on their interest in STEM, their confidence in different subjects, and their career goals. Results of these surveys found that students' confidence in chemistry, engineering and computer skills increased as a result of the course. The most significant increases were observed in engineering skills because initial confidence levels in this area were low. A majority of students reported increased interest in STEM fields and 100% of students (during the 2018 cohort) reported that increasing their confidence in science, math and engineering contributed to this intensified interest. This program evaluation reviews the program's objectives, format, teaching tools, student feedback and plans for future programming and assessment.