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The goal of this program, funded by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF ATE) program, is to provide additional professional and technical skills to cohorts of high school students through a Saturday Program. The program has provided inner-city high school students with out-of-school, hands-on educational experiences focusing on both professional and technical skills. Participant demographics will be discussed in this paper as diversity is a key objective of the program. The program utilizes industry-driven, project-based learning (PBL) and lessons in career and college readiness to prepare students for the workforce. Each student session consists of five consecutive Saturdays and is taught by a team of high school teachers, community college faculty, and instructors with expertise in professional skills, teambuilding, leadership, technical writing, coding, and STEM disciplines. The program is held on community college campuses as a way to show students that they are welcome in a college environment, which has inspired participants to have confidence in their own abilities to attend college and pursue educational and career goals in technology fields. Principals from participating high schools have commented that students who attended the Program have demonstrated an improvement in their academics and behavior due to the knowledge of professional and technical skills that they have gleaned from the program. The program’s leadership team disseminates best practices through presentations, social media, publications, and workshops at national conferences. The virtual four-day Summer Teachers’ Workshop allows high school and community college educators from throughout the United States to experience the same program that is used for the high school students. Although the workshop is virtual, participants are provided with materials and supplies, so they have the same hands-on experiences as the students in the Saturday program.
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Engineering Education Project to Promote Active Learning through Innovative Teaching on Power and Energy
While virtual learning environments have dominated for the past few years due to the pandemic, the effectiveness of hands-on activities has been gaining attention again. The participation of college students in community outreach programs was once widespread, but their role as active contributors to primary education has not been studied in depth. This study aims to create a space for a convergent STEM educational program that can benefit both the participating college students and the elementary school kids who can learn from those students. As a pilot project, the authors aim to present how they set up the program from the engineering students’ perspective first in this paper. The educational materials used for this study and the project procedure are described in detail, along with some positive results from the participating engineering students in the program.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2115427
- PAR ID:
- 10503630
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISSN:
- 979-8-3503-3120-2
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-3120-2
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 6
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- STEM, engineering education, community outreach, power and energy, innovative teaching
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- College Station, TX, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEC60005.2024.10472279
