Working With A Scientist Program (WWASP): A Summative Evaluation of Cohort 2

This report is part of a four-year evaluation assessing the impact of the Working with a Scientist Program (WWASP) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) had on its student-participants. This report includes an assessment of the impact on the first two cohorts of student-participants. This program selected participants from local high schools to take part in research activities for the spring and summer semester. To assess the students’ overall performance, several measures were used. First, a review of participant’s academic performance before and after their involvement in the program was conducted. Second, the impacts that the programs’ cogenerative dialogues had on the second cohort of students’ perceptions of their ‘self’, ‘others’ and the ‘group’ as a whole was assessed using the results of the Group Discussion Survey. Next, data from the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (URSSA), which measures perceptions of gains related to science, were analyzed. Finally, results from a third survey that was administered to the family members of the WAASP students were also assessed.