Conference Session

Mentoring & Outreach for Girls & Minorities

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lindsey Jenkins-Stark, Iridescent; Tara Chklovski, Iridescent

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

and by inviting all (toddlers to grandparents) to participate in exploration.45, 47, 54, 60 Page 15.501.6 Figure 2: Top reasons for parents’ interest in IridescentEngineers as Teachers: Personalization, Defined Outcomes, and Challenging ContentBy working with engineers at the university level, Iridescent provides families with challengingcontent and college readiness experiences, key components to increasing the participation ofminorities and women in STEM courses and careers6. University engineers also provide accessto the field of engineering that would not normally be accessible to the students at

Conference Session

Enhancing K-12 STEM Education with Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Virginia Westheider, University of Cincinnati; Patrick Brown, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

. Page 15.1299.2IntroductionThe National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Teachers (RET) described inthis paper is funded under a multi-campus NSF Center of Excellence in an urban environment.The project for 2008-2009 was to address the: Need for more students and graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Need for more women in STEM fields Need for better understanding of the role of engineers in industry and society Need for better relationships among higher education and local high school teachers.According to United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 28, 2007, the need for scientists andengineers is projected to increase by 22% as a whole between 2004 and 2014