Improving Skills and Attitudes in Minority Females Training for Engineering and Technology Careers

The authors were given the opportunity to develop a summer enrichment program for students from a large urban school system. The students involved were predominantly minority, were all from low socio-economic status households, and the majority were female. The students were selected for the program based on assessed potential for success in Science, Engineering, and Technology programs. However, precourse testing indicated a shortfall in basic math skills necessary for such careers. Additionally, the students showed a significant lack of self confidence in their abilities to perform in math and science related subjects. This was particularly true among the young women. The month long program took the approach of connecting real world applications of simple engineering concepts to the basic math necessary to analyze those concepts. The curriculum allowed the students to explore how math relates to their world through principles that they encounter in their everyday lives. The results have been very positive both in terms of improvement in math skills, and in the student’s confidence in their ability to succeed in engineering careers. This paper will present both quantitative and qualitative results documenting the improvement in both skills and attitudes. It will also discuss the general approach taken during the development of the course and will give specific examples of subject matter which seemed to connect most strongly with the students. Introduction Lauren had been selected for Purdue University’s Science Bound program for inner city middle and high school students because her test scores and her teachers both indicated high potential for a career in science or engineering. However, if you asked Lauren about her view of her chances, she gave a different answer. On the first day of the Science Bound summer camp, she took a pre-class assessment test. In the middle of the test she stopped and signaled for the instructor to come over. Lauren pointed to the portion of the test that dealt with simply pulleys and levers and told him, “This is physics, I can’t do physics.” Through the first couple days of the class, it became obvious that Lauren had very little confidence in her abilities in math and science, the fundamental building blocks of an engineering career. This is just one example of why minority females continue to be significantly underrepresented in collegiate Engineering and Technology (E&T) programs. As Sean Cavanagh (2005) wrote in Education Week, “Studies show that girls have less confidence