Gearing up for transportation engineering: A summer institute for under-represented middle school students

The numbers of female and minority students enrolled in engineering schools are increasing slowly; however there is still a relatively small percentage drawn to the field of civil engineering [1]. As a consequence, there is a need to educate young people about the profession to encourage under-represented individuals to appreciate the contributions of engineers and encourage them to become civil engineers. This summer institute project consisted of bringing these middle school students, after recommendations by their teachers, to the university campus for a week of interactive experiences. The participants gained knowledge about the role of engineers in society as well as learned how engineers use their knowledge in design applications. The major goal of this program was to introduce middle school students with preference to under-represented groups, to basic engineering and transportation-related concepts. An additional approach of the project was to draft local minority and female engineers to act as team instructors and mentors. Participants used real world examples and new technologies in their hands-on activities to reinforce the concepts presented by the engineering mentors. A final comprehensive team project was used to tie all the knowledge together in a design competition.