Conference Session

Engineering Professional Development for K-12 Teachers

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bruce Gehrig, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Lyndon Abrams, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Deborah Bosley, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; James Conrad, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Stephen Kuyath, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

need to increase theinformation about engineering careers that school counselors give high school students.Moreover, the engineering topics and profession need to be presented in a socially relevantcontext [2, 3, 4].In order to reinforce the concepts presented, the TECT workshops have been integrated withengineering focused student summer camps currently being hosted by UNC-Charlotte as part ofa separate NSF project. The summer camps are used as a vehicle to allow the TECT participantsthe opportunity to experience the diversity of students within the engineering camps, observe thehands-on activities and classroom techniques used during the camps, and to practice skillslearned in the TECT workshop. The capstone practicum for the TECT workshop

Conference Session

Best Practices in K-12 Engineering Panel

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stacy Klein-Gardner; Michele Dischino; Manjit Khosla, HALS Academy; Patrick Foster, Central Connecticut State University; Carol Shields, Stevens Institute of Technology; Dan Fagan, Wallace Primary School; Martha Cyr, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; John Staley, Doherty Memorial High School

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

production), Management and Entrepreneurship Skills,and career pathways. The Electronics Vocational Framework requires a detailed analysis intoanalog and digital circuitry. Several courses rely on the Drafting Vocational Framework,focusing on computer aided design (Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD), analyzing blueprints,dimensioning, and creating 2 and 3 dimensional models.In the senior year capstone course, one of the major objectives is to integrate advancedmathematics and science into the engineering and technology education. The governingvocational document for this course requires a large number of embedded academic (i.e. mathand science) skills within the vocational standards. In order to accomplish this, the classcompletes a project analyzing

Conference Session

Successful Mentoring and Outreach Programs for Girls and Minorities

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anant Kukreti, University of Cincinnati; Kenneth Simonson, University of Cincinnati; Latiera Evans, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

of the program by the doctoral Fellows participating in the NSFGraduate K-12 Fellows STEP (Science and Technology Expansion Project)grant in which the students and their parents were given a set of materials tobe used to design and build a tower that need to be a minimum of 5 or moreinches tall with a platform to hold a paper cup. Thus this project served asthe capstone experience. A fixed time limit for designing and constructingwas specified. The objective was to see which tower could hold the mostpennies. Figure 2 shows a Fellow testing one of the towers. The judgingparameters used by the STEP Fellows were: correct height of the tower, Figure 2. STEP Fellow

Conference Session

Enhancing Recruitment and Retention in Engineering Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mitchell Nathan, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Natalie Tran, California State University, Bakersfield; Amy Atwood, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Amy Prevost, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Al Phelps, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

invent effective strategies and representations for solving math problems, and these methods can serve as bridges for instruction. He is also exploring the embodied nature of students’ knowledge, as exhibited by gestures, and the mediating effects of action on conceptual knowledge. His studies of teachers' beliefs about the development of students' mathematical reasoning showed that content experts can show evidence of expert blind spot, which influences teachers’ expectations of what makes things difficult for their students. He is currently co-principal investigator for the AWAKEN Project (funded by NSF-EEP), which examines the nature of high school pre-engineering