Conference Session

Assessment of K-12 Engineering Programs & Issues

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Fleur Gooden, Virginia Tech; Maura Borrego, Virginia Tech; Whitney Edmister, Virginia Tech; Tremayne Waller, Cornell University; Bevlee Watford, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

examines three K-12 engineering enrichment programs and their influence on college enrollment and graduationrates for past participants of the programs. The programs, conducted by a large public universityin the mid-Atlantic, target women and underrepresented minorities and draw most of theprogram participants from the surrounding economically disadvantaged counties. The firstprogram is week-long summer day camp targeting middle school students. The second is a year-long program hosting two events each semester targeting minority sophomores and seniors. Thethird is a 2-week overnight summer camp for junior and senior women. To assess the long-termimpact of these programs on interest in engineering, we performed telephone surveys of

Conference Session

Engineering in the Middle Grades

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Schnittka, University of Kentucky; Michael Evans, Virginia Tech; Brett Jones, Virginia Tech; Carol Brandt, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

. Page 15.1138.5MethodParticipantsStudents in an after-school Boys and Girls Club at a middle school in a mid-Atlantic state wereasked to participate in the project. The club coordinator explained the project to the students andprovided them with information and parental consent forms to take home to their parents.Students whose parents completed the consent forms were given permission to participate in theproject.Of the eight students who participated in the project, five students were boys and three weregirls. All of the students were White/Caucasian. Their ages ranged from 11 to 14, with four 11year olds (all sixth graders), one 12 year old (a sixth grader), two 13 year olds (a seventh graderand an eighth grader), and one 14 year old (an

Conference Session

Best Practices in K-12 Engineering Panel

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stacy Klein-Gardner, Vanderbilt University; Marlene Aviles, Dr. Ercel Webb School # 22, Jersey City School District; Jennifer Case, East Middle School; Augusto Macalalag, Stevens Institute of Technology; John Brockway, East Middle School; Christie O'Hara, Colorado School of Mines; Michael Asheim, Colorado School of Mines; Barbara Moskal, Colorado School of Mines; Brian Lien, Princeton High School; Eugene Rutz, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

discussed in a separate section below).Overall, half of the 34 teachers who responded to the survey implemented ten or more of the 27activities that they learned during the summer 2008 workshop. Twenty-five percent did 15 or moreactivities. All but one of the activities introduced in the workshops was used by over half of theteachers. These were two model-based inquiry lessons (phases of the Moon and Earth’s seasons) andtwo engineering lessons (designing walls and creating windmills). Almost all of the teachers who hadused an activity reported successful implementation. Moreover, almost all of the teachers who used anactivity reported that they would use it again next year. Finally, almost all teachers felt that the PISAactivities had helped them