College summer programs promote students’ STEM aspirations
A new paper reveals programs that show real-life relevance of STEM inspire more students to pursue STEM careers.
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Pointing to the growing number of high-paying jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, educators have been working to encourage student interest in STEM careers. Now, a new paper reveals one powerful way to interest students in these fields: summer programs.
A new study published in Science Education found that college- and university-run STEM summer programs that show students the real‐world relevance of STEM can make those students 1.8 times as likely to aspire to STEM careers.
“This national study provides much needed robust evidence to support the idea that STEM summer programs are worthwhile investments to promote interest in these fields–particularly STEM summer programs designed to show students how STEM is relevant in the real-world,” said Joseph Kitchen, postdoctoral scholar at the Pullias Center and the paper’s first author. “What is really unique about this study is that it more closely examined program design, and revealed that when programs show students the real-life relevance of STEM, students are much more likely to express interest in pursuing a STEM career.”
Kitchen co-authored the paper with Gerhard Sonnert, research associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an associate of the Harvard University Physics Department, and Philip M Sadler, F.W. Wright Senior Lecturer in the Harvard University Astronomy Department and Director of the Science Education Department.
The scholars collected data from 27 colleges and universities participating in the National Science Foundation’s STEM Talent Expansion Program to study the impact of college-run high school STEM summer program participation on end of high school career aspirations. Even after controlling for a variety of factors, including SAT scores and external tutoring in math and science, results showed that students who participated in a program were, overall, about 1.4 times more likely to want to pursue a STEM career. Students whose programs helped them understand the real‐world relevance of STEM were 1.8 times more likely to indicate interest in a STEM career when compared to students without program exposure.
“Our study drives home for educators, policymakers, and program coordinators that college-run high school STEM summer programs are an effective tool that could be expanded or scaled-up to help solve the nation’s STEM dilemma,” Kitchen said. “And when making decisions about funding and designing these STEM programs, stakeholders should consider implementing strategies that help program participants see the real-life relevance of STEM to maximize opportunities to inspire them to pursue STEM careers.”
This study is part of Kitchen’s ongoing research on the effectiveness of college outreach, transition, and support programs. Kitchen has several forthcoming studies to be published on the impacts of college summer bridge programs, campus visits, and participation in faculty visits on students’ STEM aspirations.
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Kitchen, J.A., Sonnert, G., & Sadler, P. (2018). The impact of college‐ and university‐run high school summer programs on students’ end of high school STEM career aspirations. Science Education, 102(3), 529-547. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21332
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This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant number 1161052). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions in this article are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.