EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A 5-DAY UNIVERSITY BASED STEM ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP SUMMER CAMP FOR UNDERREPRESENTED HIGH SCHOOL JROTC STUDENTS USING THE TOSRA SURVEY INSTRUMENT

The Mississippi State University leaderSTATE STEM program provides a variety of experiences for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) high school cadets across three states: Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, the majority of whom come from underrepresented demographic populations. LeaderSTATE STEM offers 5-day summer camps (N=6) for over 300 students annually. The camps’ geosciences STEM component goal is to create an increased awareness of science and opportunities in geoscience careers through a variety of activities.

To evaluate the effectiveness of student attitudes towards science, we administered the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) instrument pre- and post-camp to ascertain changes across the seven scales that define attitudes about the world of science and society. Paired pre-post TOSRA survey results from 2014 - 2017 camp cycles (N= 836 students) were analyzed for race, gender, and school correlations.

Although earlier histogram representations indicated improved TOSRA attitudes for different demographic groups, Chi square analysis of different demographic groups revealed only a scattered statistical improvement throughout the data (p = 0.05). More research is needed to determine whether the TOSRA provides an appropriate assessment for the leaderSTATE STEM camps, and whether the 5-day experience is too limited to result in high school students’ attitudinal changes towards science.