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Session 2793

An Interactive Workshop for High School Teachers to Develop and Teach Pre-Engineering Curricula

S. K. Ramesh*, Michael J. Fujita, Preetham Kumar*, Andrew Lindsay, Steven de Haas*, Elizabeth-Gillis Raley *California State University Sacramento / Defense Microelectronics Activity/ Parallax Inc., / Sacramento Engineering and Technology Regional Consortium

Abstract

The College of Engineering and Computer Science at California State University, Sacramento has organized and conducted free interactive workshops for high school teachers who are interested in developing pre-engineering curricula. This year, the workshop was co-sponsored by SETRC (Sacramento Engineering and Technology Regional Consortium) and the Capital Center MESA program (Math, Engineering Science, Achievement). It consisted of “hands-on” laboratory sessions in the morning followed by discussions about curriculum and pedagogy in the afternoon. The high school teachers were divided into teams and rotated through five laboratory stations on Robotics, Digital Circuits, Signal Processing, Optical Engineering, Structures and Materials. Faculty and students from CSUS served as facilitators and worked closely with the teams. The afternoon featured three breakout sessions on the following topics: A: Objectives and Learning Outcomes for an Introduction to Engineering Course, B: Articulating your Introduction to Engineering Course Across the Spectrum, and C: Project based Learning to meet Engineering and Technology Standards.

One of the unique aspects of this workshop was a take-home micro controller kit especially designed by Parallax Inc., for every participating teacher. This module introduces some simple electronic projects (up to 15 different projects) based on the BASIC Stamp 2 single board computer. With the growing popularity of intelligent electronic devices, the BASIC Stamp offers an ideal platform for initial exposure to not only computer programming and electronics, but also to subjects such as robotics, environmental monitoring, and industrial control. Also all teachers received a textbook and a comprehensive workshop manual with additional resources and ideas for lesson plans and curricula. Feedback from the workshop has been very positive. We plan to offer this workshop every year to motivate teachers to develop and offer pre-engineering curricula at the high schools.

I. Introduction

We are living in a world that is changing rapidly due to dramatic developments in several fields such as communications, energy, transportation, consumer electronics and biotechnology. Technology impacts our daily lives in a profound manner. In order to successfully meet the challenges in the years ahead, it is very important that we encourage young students to pursue careers in science and technology1. This is especially critical when one considers the growing gap between the increasing demands in the workforce and the shrinking supply of professionals

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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de Haas, S., & Ramesh, S., & Kumar, P., & Fujita, M., & Raley, E., & Lindsay, A. (2001, June), An Interactive Workshop For High School Teachers To Develop And Teach Pre Engineering Curricula Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9449