Collection

2011 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

AJ Almaguer

audience.We believe that community service builds strong, empathetic leaders. With this in mind, wetackled this design problem like engineers would and specified the user needs of students likeourselves, our k-12 mentees, and the university—our primary stakeholders. After manybrainstorming sessions, we concluded that we have three main user requirements: (1)professional development, (2) the need for practical, technical experience—a chance to put ourengineering education into practice, and (3) formal mentor training.We used results from a recent a study1 performed by the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) andour own experiences to define user requirements for our k-12 mentees including the need formore exposure to science and engineering as well as the

Collection

2011 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

project progresses sothat technical problems are addressed and resolved; with the institution of formal team meetingsand informal briefings, not only have the overall quality of the various design projects improvedbut also the frequency and severity of interpersonal conflicts has been minimized.The fourth and final activity is an open work session. During this activity students are free towork on their tasks, whether analyzing, manufacturing, testing, or documenting; both instructorsare available throughout the work session to help with either technical or communication tasks.If team members are having trouble working together, then this time is also used to meetprivately with the students in question in order to mediate these conflicts. This

Collection

2011 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Rafael D. Alvarez; Raga M. Bakhiet; Theresa M. Garcia; Angeline V. Yang

degree.Evaluation of the standards, implemented by means of student activities, proves that they areeffective.IntroductionSan Diego has an extensive technical and scientific base of aerospace, biotechnology,communications, and computer-related companies, as well as research institutes, universities, andmedical centers. San Diego also has a diverse ethnic and economic population. Currently there areindividual programs in San Diego, derived from the nationally-recognized Mathematics, Engineering,Science Achievement (MESA) Program, that assist underrepresented students to earn degrees inScience, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The MESA mission is to enableeducationally disadvantaged students to prepare for and graduate from a four-year