Work in progress — Initial assessment of the effectiveness of a nationwide high school extracurricular engineering program: JETS TEAMS competition

The Junior Engineering Technology Society (JETS) offers students the opportunity to explore, assess and experience engineering through the TEAMS competition; a nationwide theme-based competition which presents engineering through the practical applications of math and science alongside everyday world challenges. More than 10,000 high school students participate annually. Nationwide, this and similar large-scale efforts to attract high school students to the innovative, creative and inventive nature of engineering draw thousands of students annually. Many of these efforts fail to assess their success. While the events are popular, do they draw students to engineering? The 2009 TEAMS competitions were assessed with questionnaires prior to, at the conclusion of and far after the event. Findings presented include student assessment of the TEAMS activity itself and perceived ability to succeed in engineering, confidence in succeeding in engineering and ability to contribute to an engineering team. Questions posed to coaches (teachers), include their reason for participation and their perception of the impact on students. Finally, plans for further assessment are presented. Assessment of this large, nationwide K-12 competition is intended to begin a discussion on the definition of `success´ for such programs.