Biomedical Engineering Summer Camp – UNR

College   Biomedical   Engineering  Education  for  High  School  Students:

Orientation and Hands-on Experiences

With  the  rising  demands  in  life  science industries and the increasing research  interests  in  highly  interdisciplinary  biomedical  engineering (BME),   many  universities  have  been  implementing  new  initiatives  to establish  and  expand  BME  programs.  A  college  degree in BME instantly identifies  a  candidate  as  having  training in both engineering and life science, and strengthens the candidate competency in job markets. Aiming  at  interesting  high school students in college BME education, the project  team  designed,  conducted  and  evaluated  three  activities: (1) teaching  expertise  training  of  high  school teachers; (2) lab tours and seminars;  and (3) summer camp. A total of 162 students and 6 teachers from three   high   schools  in  northern  Nevada  were  participated  in  these activities.  In  the  beginning  of  this project, a BME teaching expertise training  workshop  was  organized  for teachers. This workshop facilitated teachers to recruit high school students to participate in this project and prepare  new  BME  curricula or after-school programs in their schools. The lab  tours  brought  students  to  a college environment, demonstrated them college  routine research activities, introduced them knowledge base of BME discipline.   The   seminars  in  high  schools  provided  faculty  members opportunities  to  talk  with more students regarding the importance of BME R&D  to  human health, the rapid increase of college BME education, college application   processes,   and   the   BME   job   market  perspective  and sustainability.  The  summer  camp was to seed scientific interests to high potential  high school students through hands-on experience, and encouraged them  to  pursue  college  education  or  develop career plan in BME. While implementing  the project activities, the project team investigated whether the  designed  activities  (lab  tours,  seminars,  and summer camp) helped students gain more understanding and interests in BME.

Some descriptive statistics from the surveys of these activities are listed as follows:

·    among  89 students attending the seminars, at least 50% students agreed with  the  statements  in  the  survey  form,  and  they  did  enjoy the experiences from the seminar;

·    more than 80% of 52 participants gained a good understanding on BME and expressed  they  enjoyed  these  tours and would like to recommend their friends to attend if there were chances in future; and

·    90% – 100% of 21 participants felt that they enjoyed the experiences and learned  from  the  camp  projects; they liked the lab experiments; they appreciated   the   opportunities   to   learn   more  about  biomedical engineering, and more career options for their future; and they may want to explore their college studies in the BME area.

Through  the  analysis  of  all  statistics  data, it can be concluded that bringing  students  out of their schools to a fresh and friendly university environment and letting them achieve hands-on experiences on BEM technology are  efficient approaches in enhancing their understanding and interests in BME.  The  research  findings  of  this project were described in the paper entitled “Preparing high school students for college biomedical engineering through   laboratory   technology   activities”,  which  was  published  in International   Journal   of   Technology   in  Teaching  and  Learning  (A peer-reviewed journal with 28-33% annual manuscript acceptance rate).