Exploring Impacts of a STEM Day Camp on Adolescent Desire to Pursue STEM in College

Out-of-classroom activities can help cultivate interest and literacy in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. To determine how a week-long out-of-classroom experience might impact STEM interest in adolescents, a free summer camp was offered to students entering grades 6-8. During this time, students participated in coding courses, microbiology lessons, and earth science sessions. This study uses statistical regression methods on pre- and post-camp surveys to gauge relationships between parental support, socioeconomic factors, and student desire to major in STEM disciplines in the future. Our results indicate that respondents who felt more encouraged at home showed improvement in opinion regarding their desire to major in STEM disciplines after the intervention. Families that encouraged STEM literacy also tended to belong to well-represented ethnic groups in STEM, suggesting, among other things, the intergenerational pattern in STEM matriculation and the challenge that this poses to increasing enrollment of underrepresented groups in related disciplines.