Douglas, D. J., & Steenstra, I. S., & Chow, J. H., & Chen, C., & Wang, M., & Braunstein, J., & Herkenham, E. S., & Skutnik, A. L. (2019, June), Evolution of Activities in a Smart Grid Summer Camp for High School STEM Students (Evaluation)  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32771

\bibitem{asee_peer_32771}
  Douglas, D. J., \& Steenstra, I. S., \& Chow, J. H., \& Chen, C., \& Wang, M., \& Braunstein, J., \& Herkenham, E. S., \& Skutnik, A. L. (2019, June), \emph{Evolution of Activities in a Smart Grid Summer Camp for High School STEM Students (Evaluation)}
  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida.
  10.18260/1-2--32771

Daniel Jonathon Douglas, Ian Scott Steenstra, Joe H. Chow, Chien-fei Chen, Meng Wang, Jeffrey Braunstein, Elizabeth S. Herkenham, and Anne L. Skutnik.  "Evolution of Activities in a Smart Grid Summer Camp for High School STEM Students (Evaluation)".  2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2019.  https://strategy.asee.org/32771 Internet.  07 Jun, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_32771}
  Daniel Jonathon Douglas, Ian Scott Steenstra, Joe H. Chow, Chien-fei Chen, Meng Wang, Jeffrey Braunstein, Elizabeth S. Herkenham, and Anne L. Skutnik.
  "Evolution of Activities in a Smart Grid Summer Camp for High School STEM Students (Evaluation)".
  \emph{2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2019.
  https://strategy.asee.org/32771 Internet.  07 Jun, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_32771
author = "Daniel Jonathon Douglas, Ian Scott Steenstra, Joe H. Chow, Chien-fei Chen, Meng Wang, Jeffrey Braunstein, Elizabeth S. Herkenham, and Anne L. Skutnik"
title = "Evolution of Activities in a Smart Grid Summer Camp for High School STEM Students (Evaluation)"
booktitle = "2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2019"
month = "June"
address = "Tampa, Florida"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://strategy.asee.org/32771}
number = {10.18260/1-2--32771}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Members in the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Department in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a variety of energy related modules for a one-week summer camp for rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders interested in a STEM career.  This paper describes the rationales for the development of several activities requiring only a modest budget, which can be adopted by other educators interested in similar high school outreach activities.    
The main challenge in this effort is that highly technical materials must be simplified to be suitable for high school students. Throughout the first three years, the summer camp consisted of primarily lecture-type discussions. The topics discussed included energy systems, power conversion, electricity markets, power electronics, wind turbines, and communication systems.  There were also hands-on activities, including electrical circuit design, wind turbine blade design, a wind farm investment game and a power grid board game.    
In recent years, a “solar build” project was designed and used as tangible instruction during the summer camp. The students were required to build an electronic circuit which uses an Arduino microcontroller to measure the current generated by a solar cell panel and send this data via Bluetooth™ to a laptop.  The project activities allowed the students the opportunity to learn more about circuits, gain programming skill in Python, and understand fundamental energy concepts. 
Students reported statistically significant (p<0.05) changes in familiarity with electrical engineering concepts from before to after the summer program.  This was especially noticeable regarding electrical engineering concepts such as the power grid, smart grids, and wind energy.  These results indicate to us that the educational components of the camp are effectively conveying these concepts. Further discussion, as well as comparative data with past years and previous curriculi, will be discussed in the full paper. 
Another highlight of the summer camp has been the technical tours.  Over the years, the campers have visited a flywheel energy storage facility, GE Global Research Laboratory, GE wind turbine facility, and a pumped hydraulic generating plant.  Most recently, the technical visit was to the new Control Center of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). 
The summer camp accommodates about 20-24 students each year. Activities developed in the summer camp can also be used to support other K-12 education outreach activities in the School of Engineering at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.  The wind farm investment game has been used by the RPI undergraduate Engineering Ambassadors for on-site enrichment at local high schools—as it can be completed within a single class period. We are continuing to find solutions to make the program available to more high schools that are underserved in science and technology subjects.  
Since the first summer camp, the faculty at the University of Tennessee Knoxville has performed before- and after- the course assessments of the campers.  A background survey on the campers was performed before the start of the activities.  At the conclusion of the camp, a second survey asked the students to rate their interests in STEM. The increase in STEM interest has been significant in the last two years

AU  - Daniel Jonathon Douglas
AU  - Ian Scott Steenstra
AU  - Joe H. Chow
AU  - Chien-fei Chen
AU  - Meng Wang
AU  - Jeffrey Braunstein
AU  - Elizabeth S. Herkenham
AU  - Anne L. Skutnik
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Evolution of Activities in a Smart Grid Summer Camp for High School STEM Students (Evaluation)
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/32771
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--32771
ER  -