Engaging secondary school students in pre-engineering studies to improve skills and develop interest in engineering careers

• Autores: P. Hylton, W. Otoupal
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 25, no. 3, 2009, págs. 419-425
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Academic institutions are finding that creating and maintaining a student's interest in engineering and technology during the secondaryschool years is critically important. The authors have combined experiences from their previous engineering careers with techniquesfrom their current teaching positions to develop and pilot some new approaches to accomplish this. They were given a uniqueopportunity to develop a summer enrichment program for students from a large urban school system. The students involved werepredominantly minority, were all from low socio-economic status households, and were roughly evenly divided between male and female.These students represent a demographic cross-section that is in short supply in engineering today. They were selected for the programbased on assessed potential for success in science, engineering, and technology programs. However, the students showed a significantlack of self-confidence in their abilities to succeed in such careers. Additionally, pre-course testing indicated a shortfall in basic mathand science skills necessary for success in engineering. The month long program took the approach of connecting real worldapplications of simple engineering concepts to the basic skills necessary to analyze those concepts. After three summers of activity, theauthors have had the opportunity to construct and deliver several different curriculum modules to multiple groups of students.