IEEE New Brunswick Section Logo

Connecting Engineers with the Pre-college and Pre-university Community

by

Douglas Gorham, Ed.D.

Distinguished Speaker IEEE Educational Activities Board
    Tuesday, May 6, 2003
    9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
    Room GWD-124
    Gillin Hall
    540 Windsor Street
    University of New Brunswick
    Fredericton

This is a workshop on strategies and programs to help connect engineers with the pre-college and pre-university community. This workshop would be of interest to teachers and administrators at high-schools, colleges, or universities. It is also of interest to engineers, and anyone else who has an interest in enhancing the level of technological literacy of teachers and their students and in sharing information regarding careers in technical areas including engineering and science.

Admission is free, but in order to have enough instructional materials for everyone, we would like people to try to let us know if they will be attending. If you have an interest in attending, please inform:

    
Brent Petersen

    Chair, IEEE New Brunswick Section
    email: b.petersen@ieee.org
    voice: (506) 447-3328
    fax: (506) 453-3589

An agenda for the workshop is shown below:

Agenda

1. Welcome & Introductions

2. Workshop Goals:
   - Empower Section "champions" to develop collaborations with their
     local pre-college and pre-university community to promote applied
     inquiry-based learning.
   - Enhance the level of technological literacy of pre-college and
     pre-university educators.
   - Encourage pre-college and pre-university students to
     pursue technical careers, including engineering.
   - Increase the general level of technological literacy of students
     for many years.
3. Workshop Outcomes:
   - To expose minority and female students to engineering and other
     technical professions.
   - An improved understanding of engineers and the engineering
     profession among pre-college and and pre-university educators.
   - To increase the number of Sections establishing collaborative
     programs with the pre-college and and pre-university community.
   - Enhance the level of networking among Section volunteers.
   - To expand the number of Sections participating in the Teacher
     In-service Program.

4. Resources for the Pre-college and and Pre-university Community
   - brochure, handout, both
   - Careers information
   - NASA/CNU/IEEE sponsored international competition
     https://vinny.pcs.cnu.edu/
   - IEEE Virtual Museum https://www.ieee.org/museum/
   - IEEE/ASME collaboration
   - Pre-college and pre-university Educator/Engineer Resource Site
     https://www.ieee.org/organizations/eab/precollege/
   - IDEAS https://www.asme.org/education/precollege/
   - High School ROBOT Challenge
   - Retirees Enhancing Science Education through Experiments and
     Demonstrations - RE-SEED https://www.reseed.neu.edu/
   - Faraday Lecture Series
   - SAE's "A World in Motion"
   - https://www.howstuffworks.com/
   - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology -
     FIRST https://www.usfirst.org/
   - Website resources for educators
   - Sloan Career Cornerstone Center https://www.careercornerstone.org/
   - Technically Speaking Report
   - Executive Summary of Standards for Technological Literacy: Content
     for the Study of Technology


   Teacher In-service Program

   - Background Information
   - Purpose
   - Duration
   - Benefits
   - Participating Sections
   - Assessment/Questionnaire Results/Metrics
   - What Constitutes an Overall In-service Program?
     4 or more topics developed and presented to pre-college and
     pre-university educators by Section volunteers within the 2 year
     time frame Topics could be rolled out by various volunteers
     (portable) 4 or more topics available for deployment each academic
     year.
   - How to Begin?
   - A front end loaded process
   - Two entities to coordinate simultaneously
   - The Section
   - The School/District
   - Section Focus
   - Getting started
   - Volunteers & "Coaches"
   - Cost (to the Section and to the teacher)
   - Publicity (flyers, newsletter articles)
   - Topics
   - A practical, hands-on, applicable focus
   - Discussion of strategies to enlist Section volunteers

   Break

   - School/District focus
   - School/District structure
   - Contacts/Who to call first?
   - People who have district-wide responsibility for staff
     development, science, technology and mathematics. These positions
     could be directors, assistant superintendents, supervisors,
     coordinators, etc. Contact at least two of these people.

   - Briefly describe IEEE
   - Largest professional technical organization in the world
   - 37 professional societies
   - Over 380,000 members
   - Members in over 150 countries
   - Mention types of engineering represented by IEEE, e.g.,
     electrical, computer
   - Share the commitment that the IEEE and the local Section have in
     enhancing the level of technological literacy and science among
     educators and ultimately their students.

   - Discuss the alignment of topics/presentations with provincial
     standards, provincial assessment tests, and any local requirements
   - Point out the connections to science, mathematics and technology
     content
   - Discuss teachers earning in-service points/CEU's
   - Offer/request to meet with district/school level personnel to
     discuss the program, the benefits, and proposed topics.
   - Contacts may request a brief written description of the
     presentation being considered
   - Discuss potential dates and venues to deploy the presentations
   - In-service/Professional Development days?
   - Saturday mornings?
   - Determine if teachers will have a choice among sessions
   - May include the topic as a part of an engineering program
   - Discuss the length of the program
   - A suggestion would be to develop a 4-hour presentation.
   - Determine facility needs
   - Tables and chairs versus desks
   - Power needs
   - Laboratory setting
   - Resin tabletops needed?
   - A-V needs
   - Safety issues
   - Discuss refreshments for attendees
   - The Presentation (based on a 4-hour time frame)
   - Handouts are a must
   - Hands-on segments should be included
   - "Take away" supplies/models/materials are important
   - Small group work (pairs, 3, 4) is strongly encouraged
   - PowerPoint or Overhead slides are fine
   - Suggested outline
   - Introduction/background (15 minutes)
   - Share the objectives for the presentation
   - Include connections to provincial standards/provincial assessment
     tests
   - Discussion/presentation of concepts (30 minutes)
   - Group work/hands-on segment (45 minutes)
   - Debrief and discuss applications (20 minutes)
   - Discussion/presentation of concepts (30 minutes)
   - Group work/hands-on segment (45 minutes)
   - Debrief and discuss applications/comparisons (20 minutes)
   - Summarize the concepts presented and the objectives (20 minutes)
   - Questions/comments (10 minutes)
   - Housekeeping (5 minutes)
   - Complete district forms
   - Complete questionnaire (please use these 12 questions and add
     additional questions if you desire)
   - Tabulation of results
   - Other presentation venues
   - State/Province/Region wide science, technology, and/or mathematics
     teacher conferences
   - College of Engineering program for pre-university teachers
   - Follow-up implementation

5. Summary/Closure

6. Adjourn

This page was created on October 6, 2003 by Brent Petersen.
This page was updated on April 7, 2006 by Brent Petersen .
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