Engineering Students In K 12 Schools

Service and design provide mechanisms to introduce students to successive stages of engineering education. These activities positively influence outreach to K-12 students, recruiting of women and underrepresented minorities to engineering, retention of undergraduate engineering students, and encouragement and funding for graduate education. Furthermore, service and design provide continuity and motivation across engineering education. These offer experiential learning opportunities in practical problem solving, while simultaneously promoting personal development of communication skills and team leadership. Strategies are discussed for implementing service and design components in engineering education at all levels, from K-12 to graduate education. For K-12 outreach, a mentoring program called DREAM is highlighted. Opportunities for outreach and externally reviewed proposal writing and presentations are discussed in the context of undergraduate design. These can be implemented through both traditional course work and alternative design projects. Finally, the impact of all of the above activities on graduate education, particularly graduate funding, is discussed.

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Bridging Education and Engineering Students through a Wind Energy-Focused Community Engagement Project

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13169334 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (16) ◽

pp. 9334

Author(s):

Maija A. Benitz ◽

Li-Ling Yang

Keyword(s):

Wind Energy ◽

Community Engagement ◽

Student Learning ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Fourth Graders ◽

Regional Growth ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Science Standards ◽

Wind Energy Development ◽

K 12

Regional growth in offshore wind energy development, changes to the state’s K-12 science standards, and a desire to deepen undergraduate student learning coalesced to inspire an interdisciplinary community engagement project bridging university courses in engineering and education. The project consists of three main activities: a professional development event for local fourth grade teachers, five classroom lessons designed and taught by undergraduate engineering and education majors, and a final celebration event, all focused around the topics of wind energy and engineering design. This spring, the project was carried out for the third consecutive year, though each year’s implementation has been unique due to the timing of the onset of COVID-19. Analysis of responses from the Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale and an end-of-semester course survey demonstrate growth in student learning and transferrable skills from participating in the semester-long project. Additionally, exploration of students’ narrative work provides a richness to further understanding their growth and challenges they confronted. This interdisciplinary community engagement project will continue into future years, with improvements informed by the findings of this work, most notably with the hope of returning to a fully in-person delivery of lessons to fourth-graders.

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Diversity in k-12 initiatives to attract a diverse pool of engineering students

33rd Annual Frontiers in Education, 2003. FIE 2003. ◽

10.1109/fie.2003.1264736 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

S.E. Powers ◽

M. Graham ◽

T. SchWob ◽

J. Dewaters

Keyword(s):

Engineering Students ◽

K 12

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4539 Building a Translational Science pipeline: The Indiana CTSI STEM K-12 Program

Journal of Clinical and Translational Science ◽

10.1017/cts.2020.203 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (s1) ◽

pp. 57-58

Author(s):

Elmer Sanders ◽

Vanessa Barth ◽

Leigh-Ann Cruz ◽

Ilesha Sherrer ◽

Jacob Olson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Science Teachers ◽

Health Informatics ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Professional School ◽

Underrepresented Minorities ◽

List Type ◽

Translational Science ◽

Public Health Informatics ◽

One Year ◽

K 12

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Develop strong network of science teachers interested in promoting scientific research to their students.Place students in an immersive summer research internship that, when possible, matches their career interests.Expose students to the numerous career paths within the STEM field.METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The program recruits socio-economically disadvantaged students and provides them a stipend, and also accepts students who can participate unpaid.Local school teachers are engaged in a summer fellowship to learn biotechnologies and research. In Spring these teachers help recruit students and during the subsequent Fall help students with college and scholarship applications.Students are placed in a variety of laboratories within the Schools of Medicine, Science, Dentistry, Public Health, Informatics, Health and Human Sciences, Engineering and Technology, especially in biomedical engineering. Students are also placed in industry laboratories such as Eli Lilly and the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute.Long-term program follow-up is done through post-internship surveys to assess impact on graduate and professional school admission.RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Since the Indiana CTSI was established in 2008, 872 students have participated in the summer internship.71% of past interns are underrepresented minorities in science or classified as disadvantaged by NIH criteria.17% of students interned during grade 10, 72% during grade 11, and 11% during grade 12.21% of students engage in the program for more than one year.100% of past interns are currently enrolled in or have graduated college.Over 60% of those with a bachelors degree proceed to graduate and professional schools and over 80% stay in STEM related fields. These rates are equal for interns from underrepresented minorities or those classified as disadvantaged by NIH criteria.DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Students engaged in the Indiana CTSI STEM program are progressing through the translational science pipeline based on their graduating from college and remaining in the STEM field.

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