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The Teacher In-Service Program(TISP)

November 7-8, 2008San Francisco

Litsa Micheli-Tzanakou IEEE Vice President, Educational Activities

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A Few Words about IEEE

IEEE is the largest professional engineering association in the world

367,000 members in 150 countries A 501(c)3 organization incorporated in New York

Originally concentrating on power engineering and communications, IEEE at present spans technical interests across the spectrum of technology

From nanotechnology to oceanic engineering

In many respects IEEE has become “the steward of Engineering”

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AIEE IRE

Established 1884

An American Organization

Representing the establishment

Rooted in Power Engineering

First computers working group Now the Computer Society

Established 1908

An international Organization

Open to students, young professionals

Quick to adopt advances in radar, radio, TV, electronics, computers

Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (January 1913)

1963: Merger of AIEE and IRE to create IEEE

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What is IEEE?

A membership organization

A major creator and guardian of technical IP

A mechanism to bring people of common technical interests together

both geographically and disciplinarily

A guardian of the future of Engineering

An implementer of technology-related public Imperatives

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What does IEEE do?

Publishes literature in engineering, technology and computing

Organizes conferences

Develops standards

Gets engineers and technologists from different locales together

Organizes professional activities among engineering students

Educates the public about Engineering

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Why is IEEE interested in pre-university engineering education

Because it is in our stated and un-stated mission

Because in many IEEE Sections there is marked decline in the interest of young people in Engineering

This is bad for the future of these communities and would have a negative impact on their standard of living

Because we do not believe the problem is going to be tackled effectively without us

Industry does not appear to be able to address the problem directly Governments do not appear sufficiently concerned (yet) Other engineering associations look up to us

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What is the Problem?

Flat or declining engineering enrollments in most developed nations

Coupled with disappointing performance of youth in Mathematics

Insufficient number of engineers and engineering educational programs in most developing countries

Asia is far behind Europe and the US in number of engineers per capita

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What is the Problem?

Women & minority students conspicuously under-represented

Public perception of engineers/ engineering/ technology is largely misinformed Resulting in early decisions that block the

path of children to Engineering

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Pre-university activities in IEEE

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IEEE’s Pre-University Initiative 2005-2006 New Initiative

“Launching Our Children’s Path to Engineering”

Objectives

Increase the propensity of young people worldwide to select Engineering as a career path

Build a sustained public awareness program, led by IEEE,

with broad support of corporations and professional associations

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Objective 1: Engineering in the pre-university classroom

Institutionalization of IEEE Teacher In Service Program

IEEE Section engineers develop and present technology-oriented projects to local pre-university educators

Emphasis on volunteer-teacher interaction as opposed to volunteer-student interaction

Ideally: a sustained program involving several thousand schools every year

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Objective 2: Engineering Associations, Unite!

Center for Pre-University Engineering Education

Ideally, the resource of choice for pre-university cooperation with Engineering Associations

Ideally, a multi-association organization With partners such as ASCE, ASME, IEE, SEE

It is about ENGINEERING, not Electrical Engineering

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Objective 3: Strong On-line presence

New on-line portals for students, teachers, school counselors, and parents

Educational and entertaining Focused on the audience

From lesson plans for teachers to games for children

Ideally, the premier on-line resource on engineering for pre-university students

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On Line Portal

Tryengineering.org

“Strong On-line presence”

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The Web provides high potential for reachability

A successful portal can become a major resource for students, parents, school counselors, and teachers

But success is difficult in an ever-crowded medium

Effort needs to be coupled with more modern tools

Instant messaging, podcasts

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What information is needed on line?

Have met with school counselors and Engineering Associations

Need on line tools for identifying formal and informal engineering education opportunities

Engineering associations that participated in our discussions

ACM, AIChE, AIAA, ASME, ASCE, IEE, JETS, SAE, SEE, Sloane Career Cornerstone Center

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What information is available on line?

Have conducted a comprehensive review of engineering education resources

By EAB and consultants

Conclusions: Many “Engineering Resources” are actually

focusing on Science and Mathematics Resources for teachers are largely inadequate Wrong message is sent about the nature of

engineering and the life of engineers

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Good existing model

Tryscience.org “Your gateway to experience the excitement of

contemporary science and technology through on and offline interactivity with science and technology centers worldwide.”

Science is exciting, and it's for everyone!

Partnership between IBM the New York Hall of Science the Association of Science-Technology Centers Science centers worldwide

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Next step – tryengineering.org Companion site to tryscience.org

Comprehensive

Ultimate Audience: young people ages 9-18

Designed to convey excitement about engineering and design

Can-do attitude Hands-on experience Positive image of the engineering process and engineering

“Discover the creative engineer in you”

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www.TryEngineering.org

IEEE’s pre-university education portal For students, parents, teachers and school counselors

A joint project of IEEE, IBM, and the New York Hall of Science

Non-IEEE investment of approximately $1.5M

US/Canada version was launched on June 2006

Seven versions in other languages have since been launched

Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Russian

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Tryengineering.orgA portal for students, parents, school counselors and teachers

University searchBy location, program, environment

Day in the life of an engineer

Hands-on and virtual projects

Class plans for teaching engineering design

Ask an engineer Ask a student

Games Summer camps, internship opportunities

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Countries of Users: English Version

US (70%) India (5%) China (3.3%) Canada United Kingdom Austria Australia

Malaysia Germany Japan Thailand South Africa Korea Brazil

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Most Requested Files: Lesson Plans

Build a robot arm

Cracking the Code (bar codes)

Critical Load (Civil Engineering)

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Languages

中文 Chinese

Deutsch German

Español Spanish

Français French

邦人 Japanese

Português Portuguese

русский Russian

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TryEngineering Key StatisticsAs of Sept 29, 2008

2.5 MILLION HITS IN 2007 … 3.3 MILLION HITS IN JAN-Sept ‘08

Average # of visitors per month: 40,562 Highest number of total unique visitors:

67,006 (May 08) Average # of page hits per month:

214,558 Average number of university searches

per month: 8,362 Questions submitted to Ask an Expert:

3572

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TryEngineering.orgNon-English sites Monthly Averages

Language Page Hits* Visitors*

Spanish 25890 4553

Russian 22188 2930

Japanese 21040 2666

German 20848 2593

French 20379 2746

Chinese 14611 2643

*Monthly average for period 1 June – 31 March 08

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The Teacher in Service Program (TISP)

“Engineering in the classroom”

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The Teacher In Service Program (TISP)

A program that trains IEEE volunteers to work with pre-university teachers

Based on approved Lesson Plans Prepared by IEEE volunteers Tested in classrooms Associated with Education Standards Designed to highlight engineering design

principles The cost is less than $100 for a class of 30

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Inception

February 2001

IEEE Florida West Coast Section

In conjunction with the University of South Florida College of Engineering

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How does it work?

Volunteers of an IEEE Section organize a TISP training event

EAB provides logistical support and instructors

Volunteers gather for a day and a half of training

With teachers and school administrators Volunteers spread the program in their school

districts

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2008

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Cordoba (Argentina)

Port of Spain (Trinidad/Tobago)

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Teacher In-Service ProgramPresentations

To date, over 75 TISP presentations have been conducted by IEEE volunteers

TISP presentations have reached over 1600 pre-university educators

This reach represents more than 180,000 students

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Basics

IEEE Section engineers develop and present technology-oriented projects to local pre-university educators 

Lesson plans in English and Spanish for teachers and engineers

Lesson plans matched to educational standards

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Basics (2)

The program is focused at the primary (6-14) and secondary (15-18) school systems

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Activity Sample

http://www.ieee.org/web/education/preuniversity/tispt/lessons.html

http://www.ieee.org/web/education/preuniversity/tispt/slessons.html

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Build working models with household items

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Design and Build a Better Candy Bag

Lesson Focus

Demonstrate how product design differences can affect the success of a final product

in this case a bag for holding candy.

Students work in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a better candy bag

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What do we want to achieve in San Francisco?

Create a sustainable pre-university engineering education program

TISP program Participation in TryEngineering.org

Reach 150 pre-university teachers in one year All over the country 300 teachers in the next two years

Make TryEngineering a popular resource among teachers and students in the pre-university and university communities in San Francisco

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Questions and comments

etzanako@rci.rutgers.edu

e.tzanakou@ieee.org