Introducing High School Students to Biomedical Engineering through Summer Camps

Summer camps provide many high school students their first opportunity to learn about various disciplines in the engineering profession. A week-long summer camp in Biomedical Engineering (BME) was used to introduce students to many of the topics that make up this discipline, and to engage them in learning through hands-on activities, discussions and lab tours. The BME topic areas that were covered in this summer camp were biomechanics, bioMEMS, medical imaging and medical sensors. Of the students that responded in the exit surveys, 71% of student rated the summer camp as good and 57% said that they will probably recommend the camp to others. Summer camps and outreach days for high school students can be an effective means for introducing young people to BME through tailored activities that used the resources available at the host academic institution.