EXTENDING THE INSTRUCTION: IMPACT OF OPTIONAL E-RESOURCES WITHIN A ONE-WEEK RESIDENTIAL STEM LEADERSHIP CAMP

STEM-focused summer camps are some of the most popular forms of science-based youth outreach programs. An extensive body of research demonstrated that STEM-based summer camps are an excellent recruitment tool for colleges and universities since camp participation is a good indicator of whether a student will pursue a STEM major in college. To date, the effects of informal science education are difficult to quantify; most of the research conducted on science-based youth outreach programs focused on the program’s effect on the participants’ attitudes towards science. This research addresses that gap by investigating high school students’ concept gains during a geoscience-focused one-week residential summer camp held on a university campus. Six cycles, each with ~ 60 high school students, brought students to campus to engage in fitness, leadership, and STEM activities. Participating students were exposed to geoscience concepts through hands-on field trips and classroom instruction that incorporated e-resources. Additionally, students were shown and encouraged to visit other online e-resources that were developed as virtual counterparts to a physical exhibit within the university geosciences museum. Students’ content learning gains were assessed through pre- and post-camp surveys. The survey questions aligned with the direct instruction geosciences content, as well as the content the students would only have been exposed to if they interacted with the online e-resources outside of the organized camp activities. Analyses of paired pre- and post- survey data will assist the researchers in identifying which camp activities were most effective and help to determine if student participants engaged in free-choice learning with the optional e-resources during their camp experience.