[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/LEAPHeadstart.jpg” caption=”LEAP students (from left to right) David Quach, Julius Peter Gomes and Ryan Carswell work in a materials science and engineering lab this past summer with master’s student Somaradi Khiev. Photo courtesy of Faculty of Engineering.”]Graduating high school students planning to study engineering at McMaster can now earn up to two university credits during the summer before starting the fall term.

The Learning Enrichment Advancement Program (LEAP), McMaster's engineering summer camp for high school students, has launched Headstart. Headstart offers two first-year engineering courses that are taken in conjunction with other LEAP activities over the four-week duration of the program.

“Students who have earned credits in advance of starting university full-time have more options for managing their course load,” explains Stephen Veldhuis, faculty advisor for the LEAP program. “They also gain a sense of the university experience, meet their peers and learn in smaller classes, which can all help ease the transition from high school and allow the student to excel in their first year.”

The two courses offered are Introduction to Professional Engineering (ENG 1P03) and Engineering Design and Graphics (ENG 1C03). Both are mandatory first-year engineering courses required for Engineering 1, McMaster's common first-year program. Students have the option of taking one or both courses during the summer.

Introduction to Professional Engineering was offered with LEAP last summer as a pilot program. Seven Grade 12 high school students enrolled in the special course that had them solving real-world problems such as improving water quality or designing a transportation system for Nalerigu, a small village in northern Ghana.

LEAP is a four-week intensive summer program offered in both July and August to top high school students who have a strong academic record and who excel in science or engineering. The program, started in 2005, has grown from 12 students to 40 students in 2007.

LEAP combines lectures, design projects and laboratory experiments and is held in Faculty of Engineering facilities. LEAP's five topic streams include mechatronics & robotics, sustainable mechanical & civil design, biomedical engineering, nano materials to high performance components and gaming in a virtual world.