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Getting Ready for College: Experience of a Middle School Student through a Engineering Experience Program

The CMU Pre-college Summer Scholars(PSS) program is a 6-week program designed to give secondary students the opportunity to work in hands-on engineering projects. The students completed various projects throughout the summer and learned about science, math, engineering, and technology (S.T. E. M.) with assistance from secondary school teachers and engineers. Some of the things that they have learned are what an Arduino and Raspberry Pi 3 are and how to use them and what the Internet of Things is and what it is used for. They also learned about websites, including IEEE Xplore, and Tinkercad. The students worked on a major project where they duplicated how the Internet of Things is used in their Assigned Industry. For example, a hospital uses IoT for Smart beds. This program continues into the school year, where they will assist their respective teachers and continue to learn more about the STEM field. Near the end of the school year, the students will be expected to go to a conference and present a paper that they will have written about their experiences and achievements during the program. By letting them get hands-on experience and good mentors, this program has opened great opportunities and taught them many things that they will continue to use throughout their future.