Studying the Impact of a Residential Program on High School Students’ Interest in Transportation Engineering (Evaluation)

The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) was a week-long summer residential program supported by the Federal Highway Administration, the state’s Department of Transportation, and a college of engineering in a large university. The program engaged participants in transportation engineering topics with opportunities to interact with engineers who plan and maintain transportation systems. 125 students entering grades 10-12 spent one week living at the university campus. Students participated in tours of transportation-related sites not normally accessible to the public including traffic management centers, airports, and active construction sites. Students also engaged with faculty and toured campus labs related to aviation, structures, and materials. Students were mentored by undergraduate engineering students. Students were asked to read a set of transportation engineering problems and identify whether they were good examples of transportation engineering and how appealing these examples were to enhance their interest in these types of problems. The study found that through a rich set of immersive transportation engineering experiences, statistically significant increases in awareness of- and interest in- transportation engineering could be engendered in high school students.