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Preliminary Results of Assessing the Impact of a High School Science Outreach Program on the Confidence, Attitudes, and Skills of the Participants

Science outreach has been shown to enhance science education and cultivate students' interest in science. The Summit Country Day School, an independent Cincinnati‐based co‐educational K‐12 school, established a Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Center for Biomolecular Modeling Modeling a Protein Story (MAPS) team this school year, with the overall goal of increasing the scientific and technical skills of its participants. Through this 22 week program, the participants studied the structure‐function relationship of an assigned protein (Aquaporin) by researching relevant scientific articles and using software (Jmol) for molecular modeling to 3D print the protein structure. Seven underclassmen participated; two science faculty members facilitated and mentored. A Likert survey was developed to assess and compare the confidence, attitudes, and skills of the participants. Specifically, the tool evaluated these learning goals: 1) selecting relevant scientific articles, 2) assessing important points in the selected articles, 3) presenting the summary of the articles and their ideas to the group, 4) writing a scientific abstract, and 5) managing computer software for molecular modeling for 3D printing. The tool was administered at the beginning and halfway through the program, with planned administration at its conclusion. Wilcoxon signed‐rank test was performed to assess statistically significant differences between the survey responses at the two time periods. The survey findings demonstrated no statistically significant differences between the responses at the beginning of the program and at the halfway through the program. However, there were overall trends for improvement in the confidence, attitudes, and skills of the participants, especially regarding understanding scientific articles (Fig. 1). In conclusion, participating in a MAPS team generally increases the confidence, attitudes, and skills of the participants in regard to scientific activities. The lack of statistical significance may be because of the short duration of the program and small sample size.