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Session 2525

An Outreach Effort - The Connections Program

Steven H. Chin, MaryJac Reed, and Ardoth Hassler Catholic University of America/Catholic University of America/Georgetown University

The School of Engineering within The Catholic University of America (CUA) has an affiliation with the local high schools in the Washington DC area whose goal is to stimulate interest in engineering among high school students. There are currently 14 participating high schools, many of which include a student population with high minority and female enrollment (two of the schools are all-girls). As part of this initiative, CUA is currently funded by the National Science Foundation on a 4 year project called "The Connections Program". Through this program, the affiliated high schools have access to the computing facilities of the University. This includes Internet access, use of CUA's scientific applications (e.g., math and science related applications such as Matlab and Mathematica), and on-line library catalog access. A crucial part of the project is multi-tiered training. An ethics statement and fair usage policy has been drafted to ensure that the provided resources will be used in the appropriate fashion.

I. Introduction

Connecting our schools, colleges, and companies to the Information Superhighway may be the single most important thing we do this decade to maintain this country’s economic viability1. This statement, while dramatic, cannot overstate the need for our secondary schools to begin the process of connecting to the global networking infrastructure. Many publications are available which document the resources that are available on the Internet2,3. These publications provide a description of Internet tools (e.g., e-mail, gopher, web) and interesting educational sites. There are sites in many diverse curricular areas, including (but not limited to) the language arts, business, computers, mathematics, science, engineering, and social studies.

In concert with this effort, it is necessary to educate the populace on how to effectively utilize the capabilities. To complicate the situation, there has been a downward trend in engineering enrollment over the past few years. In today's high technology environment, introducing scientific and engineering concepts early in a student's educational experience is critical in fostering students' interest in technology. At the same time, an “information revolution” has occurred which requires educators of all levels and disciplines to constantly upgrade their skills. These factors contributed to the need for the Connections Program, which provides network connectivity to selected area high schools.

1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

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Chin, S. H., & Reed, M., & Hassler, A. (1996, June), An Outreach Effort The Connections Program Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6222