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Introduction to Engineering at Walnut Hills High School

Audeen Fentiman, Artemus Herzog, John Merrill / Liv Ramstad, Ferd Schneider The Ohio State University / Walnut Hills High School

Abstract

Many high school students, particularly women and minorities, are not familiar with the engineering profession and do not recognize it as a viable career option. To familiarize students with engineering, help them to develop skills necessary for success in engineering courses, and build their confidence in those skills, a new course, Introduction to Engineering, is being offered at Walnut Hills High School. Walnut Hills is a 6-year traditional college preparatory school with a diverse student population. The course is nearly identical to the Introduction to Engineering sequence required of beginning engineering students at The Ohio State University, but has been modified to be taught over an entire school year instead of two 10-week quarters. Fifty-nine students are enrolled. A math teacher and a science teacher at Walnut Hills High School are team teaching the course during the 2001-02 school year with support from OSU faculty and staff. A grant from General Electric provided the funds to purchase laboratory equipment, textbooks, and software for the course. In addition, the grant supported the high school instructors’ preparation to teach the course.

This paper was prepared by the Walnut Hills High School teachers and OSU faculty and staff directly involved in preparation and presentation of the course. It outlines the course objectives, content, structure, and management. Details on establishing a university/high school/ industry team to support development and implementation of the course are provided. Finally, the authors describe the assessment plan and the lessons learned during the first year.

Introduction

Many students with the talent and skills to become engineers are not aware that engineering is a career option for them and do not consider it as a college major. As a result, those students lose an opportunity to pursue a rewarding and challenging career, and society does not benefit from the contributions they could have made. This pattern continues even though the demand for engineers is growing rapidly. The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Engineering has recently developed a 2-course sequence entitled Introduction to Engineering which gives students a chance to explore a variety of engineering disciplines, learn many skills engineers need, and experience the joys and frustrations of solving engineering problems in hands-on laboratory activities. Unfortunately, the only people who have the opportunity to learn about engineering in these courses are those who have already entered college and selected engineering as their major. If the number of engineers graduating from our colleges is to keep pace with the demand, more students need to learn that engineering is a viable career option before they choose their college majors.

In an effort to address this need, a team consisting of faculty and administrators at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, faculty and staff of the OSU College of Engineering,

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Ramstad, L., & Schneider, F., & Fentiman, A., & Herzog, A., & Merrill, J. (2002, June), Introduction To Engineering At Walnut Hills High School Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10535