Best Practices in K-12 and University Partnerships …...Best Practices Panel ASEE K -12 Division 20...

Paper ID #8949

Best Practices in K-12 and University Partnerships Panel Winners

Miss Mindy Hart, EPICSDr. Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University

Laura Bottomley directs The Engineering Place for K-20 Outreach at North Carolina State University.She is also a teaching professor in the Colleges of Engineering and Education at NC State University andthe Director of Women in Engineering. She teaches classes in engineering for freshmen and sophomoresand for juniors in elementary education.

In her role as director of The Engineering Place at NC State, Dr. Bottomley and her colleagues reachmore than 5,000 students, 200 teachers and 500 parents each year. The programs she leads includesummer camps for K-12 students; programs that send undergraduates and graduate students into schoolsto work with elementary and middle school students; training sessions for NC State engineering alumniwho want to be volunteer teachers in their communities; and professional development and classroomsupport for K-12 teachers who want to introduce engineering concepts to their young students. She andher colleagues lead teacher workshops in STEM around the State. In 2009 Dr. Bottomley was selected fora Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Mentoring by the WhiteHouse Office of Science and Technology Policy and also by the Educational Activities Board of the IEEEfor an Informal Education Award. She was also inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women in 2008for her contributions to eliminating racism and empowering women.

Bottomley received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in1984 and 1985, respectively. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from NC State in 1992. Shehas previously worked at AT&T Bell Labs on ISDN standards and Duke University teaching classes anddirecting a lab in the electrical engineering department.

Ms. J. Jill Rogers, University of Arizona

J. Jill Rogers is the program coordinator for ENGR 102 HS at the University of Arizona. ENGR 102 HSis an AP type, college level, introductory engineering course offered to high school students. Over theyears Jill has developed K-12 science summer camps, conducted K-12 educational research, developedengineering curriculum for formal and informal education venues, and developed robotics outreach pro-grams for children’s museums and K-12 schools. Jill is a certified teacher and holds a Master’s of Sciencein Education. Her Master’s thesis topic examined middle school student attitudes towards robotics andconsidered gender differences. She is a member of the National Science Teachers Association, Philan-thropic Educational Organization (P.E.O) and American Society for Engineering Education. She has longbeen an advocate for improving K-12 STEM education. Jill’s research interest lies in the K-12 pipeline toengineering and the ways to bring young people, particularly under represented populations, into STEMcareers.

Dr. Merredith D Portsmore, Tufts University

Dr. Merredith Portsmore is the Associate Director for Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Out-reach (www.ceeo.tufts.edu). Merredith received all four of her degrees from Tufts (B.A. English, B.S.Mechanical Engineering, M.A. Education, PhD in Engineering Education). Her research interests focuson how children engage in designing and constructing solutions to engineering design problems and eval-uating students’ design artifacts. Her outreach work focuses on creating resources for K-12 educators tosupport engineering education in the classroom. She is also the founder of STOMP (stompnetwork.org),and LEGOengineering.com (legoengineering.com).

Dr. Jeffrey B. Goldberg, College of Engineering, University of Arizona

Dr. Jeff Goldberg is Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona and an accomplishededucator and course designer. Dr. Goldberg has co-authored an award winning textbook on production

c©American Society for Engineering Education, 2014

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Paper ID #8949

planning and inventory control (with Ron Askin - Joint Publishers Book of the Year Award - 2003, Insti-tute for Industrial Engineering), and a set of case studies used in introductory operations research classes.He did early work in web based education and has had classes on-line since 1997. His teaching awards in-clude the Andersen Consulting Teaching Award, 1992; a sabbatical appointment to the United States Mil-itary Academy, Department of Systems Engineering, 1995-1996 (awarded the Department of the Army,Commander’s Award for Civilian Service); the UA University-Wide Teaching Award for Meritorious De-partmental Achievement in Undergraduate Education, 1997; and the EL-Paso Natural Gas FoundationFaculty Career Teaching/Research Achievement Award, 1999. He is a long-time supporter of strategiesfor recruiting, retaining, educating, and supporting a diverse group of engineering students and ENGR102 in HS is a strong component in the UA program portfolio.

c©American Society for Engineering Education, 2014

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Best Practices Panel ASEE K-12 Division 2014

The K-12 AND PRE-COLLEGE ENGINEERING DIVISION of ASEE is recognizing exemplary K-12 – university partnerships in engineering education at the 2014 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in Indianapolis, Indiana. To do this, the Division is sponsoring a panel session on Best Practices in K-12 and university partnerships. Submissions chosen for participation in this session demonstrate a true partnership between a K-12 school (or schools) and an engineering school/college at a university. Selected partnerships have data to support proven success in the classroom and demonstrate engineering engagement and knowledge acquisition by K-12 students through age appropriate activities and lessons. Best Practices Partnership Panel submissions are authored collaboratively between engineering and technology education faculty and K-12 teachers. Details on the partnership's structure and goals, the strategies employed to overcome challenges and obstacles, and successes and lessons learned are included. Each partnership’s description includes sample student product(s) and conveys how other partnerships may emulate the project. One proposal winner was chosen by a panel of reviewers at the middle school level and two at the high school level. The three winning submissions have been used to create a conference paper for this session.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL WINNER

Establishment of STEM Education in Nash Rocky Mount Public Schools

Cynthia Carpenter, Rocky Mount Middle School, Rocky Mount, NC

Susan D’Amico, The Engineering Place, North Carolina State University Laura Bottomley, The Engineering Place, North Carolina State University

Introduction The Engineering Place at North Carolina State University College of Engineering has been holding engineering camps for middle school students since 2004. The current coordinator for all of the engineering camps for the College (serving over 1200 students in grades 2-12 last year) is Susan D'Amico. The camps are led by a team of NC State engineers together with school teachers. Four years ago Cyndi Carpenter was hired to teach at the Rocky Mount Middle school camp. At the time Cyndi was an eighth grade science teacher. The next year, Cyndi returned as the lead teacher for Rocky Mount and also taught at the Raleigh camp. Working together since then, Susan and Cyndi have expanded the Rocky Mount camps to include elementary, middle and lower division high school. They have also written and received grants to support multiple after school programs at multiple schools that use the curriculum of the summer camp series as well as new activities developed by Cyndi with and without the support of NC State Engineering faculty. Cyndi has also received grants for implementing engineering activities in her classroom that she learned at the camps. One of the favorites is making lip balm. She has also recently received a grant to partner with the non-profit Engineering World Health to do activities in the classroom, just as the NC State Engineering camps did last year. Partnership Structure and Goals The goals for engineering camps offered by The Engineering Place are the same across all camp locations: to interest and excite K-12 students about engineering and to convey the true nature of modern engineering to K-12 students, parents and teachers. In support of these goals, many of our activities are designed based on either the Grand Challenges of Engineering, as listed by the National Academy, current research projects of our faculty, or engineering in the news. This results in a wide variety of activities, many non-traditional, and applications that appeal to the appropriate age group. In addition, our camps deliberately do not teach that certain activities are tied to certain engineering disciplines, since most of the cutting edge research at our university lies at the junctions of many disciplines. The engineering at these camps is “not your grandfather’s engineering.” The Rocky Mount site is hosted at the Gateway Technology Center, an NC State Extension office. Personnel at the site provide support for the site coordinator, Cyndi Carpenter. Ms. Carpenter creates specific agendas, hires teachers and engineering students as camp staff, and takes care of all logistics local to the site. Susan D’Amico, on behalf of The Engineering

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Place at NC State, provides activities, consults on agendas and logistics, and provides training for the staff of the camp. During the camp weeks, Susan also arranges for NC State Engineering faculty or staff to participate onsite at the Rocky Mount camp. All funding is handled by the Gateway Technology Center, as are acceptance decisions. The Engineering Place hosts the application gateway and web page. Strategies Employed to Overcome Obstacles Susan and Cyndi communicate weekly to discuss progress and issues. They use a Gantt chart to keep track of progress. After fourteen years of camps, The Engineering Place resource documents are robust, so timing is rarely an issue. When an obstacle is encountered, the Director of The Engineering Place is brought into the discussion. Examples of obstacles include: locating low cost electronic materials robust enough for children, developing activities to fit a particularly interesting theme, and dealing with personnel issues that go beyond simple miscommunications. In each case, the Director makes a call to resolve the issue. For one particularly difficult personnel issue, The Director facilitated a meeting between all parties, and one person was let go. Assessment The students who have participated in the summer camps and after school program have improved their school performance, but have also expanded their ideas about the kinds of careers open to them. The first students to have come through the Rocky Mount camps start at the NC State College of Engineering next fall. Individual student test score data cannot be obtained from the school system, and would not be very informative, as tests have changed over the course of the last few years due to realignment with Common Core standards, among other things. The Engineering Place partners with an NSF sponsored evaluation program, MISO, which provides common assessments for all outreach programs at NC State. MISO, which stands for Maximizing the Impact of STEM Outreach, provides a pre and post survey of all campers or after school participants. The surveys focus on student perceptions of their own STEM attitudes, efficacy and belief, correlated with student demographic characteristics. We have two years of data from the Rocky Mount and Raleigh camps, comprising over 500 assessed students in elementary and middle school that show a significant positive shift in attitudes in the assessed areas of math, science, engineering, technology, 21st century skills and their future. The Engineering Place has also collected several years of data from parent surveys that show participating students increase the amount that they discuss math, science and engineering at home after attending the camps. A sample MISO report is included as an appendix. Students increased their confidence in their mathematical abilities, but the area where the students showed the most gains at the Rocky Mount camp was their attitudes about 21st century skills. The pre and post strongly agree percentages to the survey statements (5 point Likert scale) are below.

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I am confident I can include others’ perspectives when making decisions. 31% to 36% I am confident I can make changes when things did not go as planned. 29% to 31% I am confident I can set my own learning goals. 34% to 42% I am confident I can manage my time wisely when working on my own. 24% to 34% When I have many assignments, I can choose which ones need to be done first. 31% to 35% I am confident I can work well with students from different backgrounds. 35% to 39% Student work Samples of student work include student workbooks, wherein students document the steps of the engineering design process and reflect on what they have learned. Example pictures of student designs are below.

NEWSPAPER CHAIRS

SHIP A CHIP1

1 Activity from Martha Cyr, Worchester Polytechnic Institute

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SCRATCH PROGRAMMING

AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE DESIGN

GREEN ROOF DESIGN

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Successes As a result of the partnership, Cyndi Carpenter was promoted to the STEM coordinator for the Nash Rocky-Mount school system and a teacher of engineering at a new middle school. The impact of the partnership continues and affects all of the students in the district. One student, who attended the camp for multiple years, and then returned as a mentor for younger children, was recently recognized for voluntarily building a course registration system for his school system, because he saw a problem with the current system and had the confidence to believe he could solve it, skills that he learned at engineering camp. Thursday, March 13, 2014, The Wilson Times

The Nash-Rocky Mount Board of Education honored Southern Nash senior Blake Stoddard for creating a new online course registration portal that's being used across the school district this spring. Pictured with Blake are the board's chair, Evelyn Bulluck, and Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Nash-Rocky Mount Schools Additional examples of student work and the effects of the partnership can be found at the following links. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNONqlyd5Rs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXMnzrmDtg

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/middle-schoolers-explore-engineering-camp- 2118793 https://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/students-explore-engineering-tech-center- 2101541 http://www.dailysoutherner.com/x881894731/Engineering-camp-motivates-high-school- students-to-make-world-change http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/camp-exposes-kids-world-engineering- 1152565

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Emulating the Partnership Eight additional camps have been formed around the state to duplicate the Rocky Mount programs, including at Hickory, NC, Charlotte, NC, Wilson, NC. Anyone wishing to implement a similar partnership can either receive all project documents via email, attend a training at NC State University or both. The Engineering Place offers sample budgets, Gantt charts for planning, all curricula, student workbook samples, even tee shirts designs free of charge. If a group wishes to attend training at one of the locations in the state offered, then there is a small fee.’ The appendix to this paper contains evaluation data from the program.

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APPENDIX

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HIGH SCHOOL WINNER

EPICS High and Xavier College Prep Service-Learning Partnership

Janet Mambrino, Xavier College Prep, Phoenix, Arizona

Mindy Hart, Purdue University, EPICS

Partner Profiles Purdue University EPICS

Purdue University is a coeducational, state-assisted system in Indiana. Founded in 1869 and named after benefactor John Purdue, Purdue University is one of the nation's leading research institutions with a reputation for excellent and affordable education. The EPICS Program is an academic program within Purdue’s College of Engineering. The vision for the EPICS Program is to inspire and prepare students for the future while improving their communities today. EPICS High is the component for the high school and middle school environment. It engages students in pathways that lead to STEM careers through their participation in community-based design teams that address needs within their local communities. EPICS High’s mission is to be a leader in developing, disseminating, and supporting service-learning models that engage high/middle school students in engineering and computing-based design projects that meet the needs of their communities. EPICS has the potential to transform how the STEM fields are introduced to high school students by using the service-learning approach to tap into student populations that are not currently being drawn into engineering, especially female and underrepresented minority students. While interest in engineering has been flat or declining, there has been an explosion among teenagers in service-learning, volunteering, and community engagement. By connecting civically-engaged students to EPICS, the program can generate interest in engineering and technology and build STEM pathways. Key elements of the program include: teacher professional development; engineering mentors and support; and STEM and computer science content (EPICS students apply their knowledge to meet real needs). EPICS has the potential to play a prominent role in addressing many current issues facing today’s communities by providing not-for-profit organizations—such as community service agencies, schools, museums, and local government offices—the creation, implementation, and delivery of technology resources needed to improve services.

Xavier College Prep (XCP) in Phoenix, Arizona An exceptional example of EPICS High at work is Xavier College Preparatory (Xavier) in Phoenix, Arizona. In the fall of 2013 XCP began their fourth year using the EPICS model. What sets Xavier apart, aside from outstanding academics, is that it is an all girl’s Catholic high school. The EPICS model immediately caught on at the school, merging student interest in service learning and outstanding

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academics with themes the school found integrated well with Catholic themes of social justice. There are currently over 150 students involved in various EPICS High projects, and nearly 500 students have participated in EPICS High since the program began in 2010. EPICS High at Xavier has partnered with the mathematics and technology departments within the school, having designed a small footprint technology cart for classroom use, a telescope stand for the astronomy classes, and a redesign of the existing technology classroom and support spaces to make better use of space while improving traffic flow and reducing noise between classroom spaces. In addition, Xavier has developed partnerships with a number of community organizations, including Weldon House, operated by the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, with a number of warehouse and storage projects to help store and organize incoming donations, the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Project, an inner city area, now a city park, that has been restored to a native riparian habitat. Projects have included ways to protect the native cottonwood from the resident beaver population, the design of a butterfly garden as a migration stop for Monarch butterflies, education projects, and the development of landscape and seating areas for park-goers. Partnership Structure and Goals There are basic overarching goals for the EPICS High program and they are as follows: 1. To create and disseminate sustainable EPICS High models through: teacher development, materials and resources, and teacher support. 2. To create and distribute a curriculum to teach design at the high school and middle school level through service-learning. 3. To increase students’ awareness of and interest in engineering and computing fields and service-learning opportunities in STEM fields through the EPICS High model. 4. To implement an assessment and research plan to measure the impact of EPICS High on students, teachers and communities. 5. To develop sustainable sources of funding to administer and grow the EPICS High program. 6. To build a solid network of partnerships for EPICS High, including high schools, middle schools, universities/colleges, non-profits, industry, foundations and professional societies. To become an EPICS High school, there are just a few steps one must follow. Each summer, a teacher training workshop is conducted. Teachers attending are trained on the concepts such as service-learning, teamwork, introduction to engineering, and how to implement the EPICS High curriculum. Once attended, the school is at liberty to adopt the EPICS model and implement as they see fit. The beauty of the EPICS model is that is flexible enough to be implemented in a variety of STEM courses. The EPICS High Headquarters serves as a model to insure fidelity to the EPICS model integrated with core curriculum. The EPICS model strives to enhance current course content, not replace it. Schools using EPICS High can unburden their curriculum by implementing a problem-based approach to teaching and learning. An exemplar model of this can be seen through the Xavier implementation of EPICS High. Xavier has implemented EPICS into multiple courses as well as having it as a standalone engineering course. They actively engage students in engineering projects that make a difference in their own community.

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The structure of the partnership is such that each entity has distinct roles. EPICS High provides curriculum, implementation support, help discovering mentors, opportunities for grant funding, and promotion of the school projects in a widespread arena. The school is responsible for identifying a community need, project design and delivery, and communicating needs to EPICS High Headquarters. An outstanding school such as Xavier has also assumed the role as EPICS Ambassadors, presenting at numerous conferences and sharing best practices with newly adopting EPICS High schools. Overcoming Challenges There are four major obstacles that most every EPICS High school will face during the tenure of the program. The first of these is that of proximity to EPICS High Headquarters. While headquarters are located in the central area of the US, many of the EPICS High schools are not, including Xavier. Even though teachers are equipped to implement the EPICS model at the completion of training, there is always some uncertainty when trying something new. EPICS High personnel make themselves available to questions and needs from the schools- some even resulting in a site visit to the school. Additionally, where EPICS Universities exist, high schools and universities are connected so there may be face to face assistance if needed. Technological advances have made it easier to have a personal touch through the use of Google communities and hangouts. Xavier has overcome this obstacle by staying in constant communication with EPICS Headquarters as well as partnering with Arizona State University, an EPICS University in closer proximity. In addition, when needed, Xavier enlists the aid of young women in the engineering field, some of who are Xavier alumnae, who volunteer on a regular or as needed basis, to assist EPICS project teams. This form of mentorship proves an invaluable way to encourage these young high school women to continue their pursuit of STEM related careers. A second challenge that each partnership experiences is that of funding complications. Many of the best solutions to community needs can come with a high price tag. EPICS headquarters works with the school to determine other low cost solutions as well as ways to seek additional funding. Xavier has overcome this obstacle by seeking donations from the community for supplies to help with the projects. A third obstacle that may exist in this partnership involves the continuity of projects. Since EPICS is all about serving the community, schools want to provide good client support once a project is delivered. But real projects, done in real time, often do not fit the school calendar. So a plan must be considered and implemented for how support will be given once the project is delivered to the client as well as how to bring new students into the project development mid-stream. An example of how Xavier has overcome this is through offering EPICS courses throughout all four years of high school. You can then have students working on projects for multiple years – which provides consistency in communication and design. A final challenge that can exist is that of discovering projects. Not because of the lack of needs but prioritizing projects according to their feasibility becomes difficult. Additionally when a project requires expert knowledge, EPICS staff and teachers work tirelessly to find the right project mentor or partner that can provide that expertise and help refine the need. Xavier has overcome this obstacle by publicizing their efforts and successes so organizations now come to them instead of having to actively seek a client.

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Successes The EPICS High program at Xavier College Prep has been one of the most successful implementations of EPICS at the high school level. One of the biggest successes is getting girls interested in engineering. Since its inception in 2010, the EPICS High program at Xavier has grown from an extracurricular independent study with 23 students, to a multi-faceted program with 150 girls participating not only in the independent study program, but enrolled in one of three levels of engineering classes and/or completing EPICS High projects at Rio Salado Habitat through the AP Environmental Science class. Additionally, Xavier has worked above and beyond the initial scope of EPICS to offer an EPICS Laureate program to provide curriculum uniquely focused on engineering. In May, 2013, the first group of seniors were eligible for the EPICS Laureate. Of the ten seniors participating in the EPICS High program, four met the requirements and received this accolade. In May, 2014, eight of the fifteen seniors participating in the program will receive the Laureate. Xavier anticipates that in May, 2015, 16 of the 24 participating seniors will receive the Laureate distinction on their diplomas. While the Laureate serves to recognize a student for her overall commitment to STEM, even students who participate in only one facet of the program and do not pursue the Laureate find that engineering provides a way for them to make a difference in the world. Of those 23 original independent study participants, 12 enrolled in engineering programs in college and will be graduating this year. Every year, Xavier surveys students who participate in the EPICS High program. Nearly all students comment that they have become interested in pursuing a career in a STEM field as the direct result of their experience in EPICS high. The overwhelming majority of seniors graduating this year who have participated in EPICS High at Xavier in some way plan to major in an engineering or STEM field in college. Xavier’s successful implementation has led to many opportunities for teachers and students alike. The teachers and students have presented at numerous conferences and events such as the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, US News and World Report STEM Solutions Summit, the Girls Collaborative STEM conference, and many other teacher conferences and workshops. The projects have provided accolades from other universities such as Arizona State as well as within the greater Phoenix, Arizona community. In Xavier’s role as an EPICS Ambassador, teachers and students have welcomed faculty and administrators from other area high schools into their EPICS classes and shared their experiences and lessons learned as the program grew, providing valuable insight and offering assistance to new teachers and schools wanting to implement the EPICS/High model. Xavier is uniquely qualified in this area as they have implemented the EPICS/High model as an extracurricular activity, as a stand-along course, and as a project component in the AP Environmental Science class. Lessons Learned All in all, we have learned that EPICS can be implemented in a variety of schools, in a variety of ways. It works best when there is an enthusiastic teacher, an interactive community partner, and supportive school administration. As with any new endeavor, there are bumps along the way. Teachers need support and encouragement as they develop their program. However, with proper support of community members, technical mentors, and university personnel, EPICS High is on its way to changing the face of engineering.

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Sample Student Projects: Current Xavier projects include Arizona Forward’s Grand Canalscape project, designed to revitalize the area around the centuries old canal system in central Phoenix, and the PHX Renews Project, a pilot program for the City of Phoenix with a vision to turn vacant urban lots into public art and education spaces. At the PHX Renews pilot site in downtown Phoenix, student teams have designed and will be installing an outdoor classroom with an interactive sundial built into the classroom stage. The PHX Renews site also includes collaboration between Xavier EPICS and the Arizona Science Center to develop and install an interactive pervious concrete demonstration exhibit. In addition, the program is working with one for-profit company, PetSmart, to aid in their Zero Waste by 2020 initiative. In this collaboration, student teams will look at possible ways to reuse or recycle the large volume of pet hair clippings which currently find their way into landfills. In 2012, EPICS High students partnered with a mission in Ghana to help find cost effective and healthier alternatives to charcoal and wood burning fireplaces for native families to cook meals and bake food. A variety of alternatives have been explored and students are hoping to develop an appropriate technology using either biofuel or solar options. The team will also produce an instructional video and documentation that the mission can share with local residents to teach them how to make and maintain their own ovens using available resources, or materials which can readily be supplied to the mission for this purpose. Another way that the EPICS teams at Xavier engage local schools is through a program they call Girls Have IT (Information Technology) Camp. The camps were modeled after their own annual Girls Have IT Day. This mini summer camp engages middle school girls in a wide variety of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activities. This camp shows middle school girls that they can really “do math and science”. Data collected by the EPICS team at Xavier from their annual Girls Have IT Day has shown that many of the attendees do not even know what engineering is when they arrive, yet leave knowing they “can do this” and are excited, and encouraged, that they can be successful in STEM classes in high school and college. Many of the projects and curricular examples can be found on their Xavier website: https://sites.google.com/a/xcp.org/epics-xcp/home Each project creates a website to document their progress, two examples of such are below:

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HIGH SCHOOL WINNER

ENGR 102 HS – An Introduction to Engineering, University Level Course for High School Students

J. Jill Rogers, Program Coordinator ENGR 102 HS, University of Arizona

James C. Baygents, Associate Dean Academic Affairs, University of Arizona Jeffery B. Goldberg, Dean - College of Engineering, University of Arizona

1. Introduction

In order to remain competitive in the global market, the United States must continue to train the best and brightest students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. One way to increase the pool of students seeking engineering degrees is to reach out to those who are less inclined to choose and be prepared for an engineering degree program. Many high school students have no exposure to the engineering profession and some students might be uncomfortable with the academic challenges a university engineering course could pose. Many of these high school students lack an intrinsic belief that they have “what it takes” to succeed in engineering. A rigorous high school engineering experience could dispel some of these student concerns. We believe that our ENGR 102 HS program directly addresses the concerns and needs of high school students. Our results provide quantitative data indicating that a university level engineering course can be successful when high schools and universities cooperate closely and are both stake holders in each other’s success.

Cohort Academic Year 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 No. Participating High Schools 1 6 14 20 22 29

No. Participating Districts (+private schools) 1 5 (+1) 8 (+2) 13 (+2) 14 (+4) 16 (+4)

High School Course Enrollment 20 82 197 295 303 301 Subsequently matriculated to

UA Engineering 5 (25%) 25 (31%) 38 (19%) 51 (17%) 54(18%) N/A

Still in engineering at the end of first year 5 24 32 38 N/A N/A

First-year retention rate 100% 96% 84% 75% N/A N/A Table 1: ENGR 102 HS Enrollment History and Retention Rates

1.1. History of ENGR 102 HS

As part of a push to improve freshman quality and retention, the College of Engineering (COE) at the University of Arizona (UA) piloted the first ENGR 102 HS classroom in AY2008-09 at Hamilton High School (HHS) in Chandler, Arizona. The impetus for the course came from HHS principal, Dr. Fred DePrez; to provide an AP© type, university engineering experience for high school juniors and seniors. The hope was that the course would offer a diverse group of students an introduction to engineering as a possible career without the risk involved in taking the course

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at the university or committing to an engineering major. The pilot course was taught by HHS teacher Jim Clark and twenty HHS students completed the pilot course in a full academic year. Each received three units of college credit. Of these twenty students, five joined the UA COE in fall 2009 and to date, all five have graduated with an average GPA of 3.34. Details about the pilot and first years of the program are outlined in an ASEE conference paper published in 2011(1). Today the program has grown to 29 high schools with an annual enrollment of about 300 students. Females represent between 21% and 23% of the total students in any given academic year; this number is above the national average (18.8%) of women enrolled in university engineering programs(2).

1.2. Program Goals and Objectives

ENGR 102 HS Teaching Objectives While providing high quality instruction, ENGR 102 HS teachers will:

1) Show students that engineers use skills in mathematics and science to help people in a variety of global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts

2) Increase student self-efficacy in engineering — that is, increase students’ belief in their ability to pursue and succeed in the engineering profession

3) Elevate the visibility of engineering as a viable and rewarding career path 4) Prepare students to make informed choices about their academic and career

options by providing them with information regarding the vast number of engineering career path

5) Help students identify “false positives”- that is, allow students who think they want to be engineers to explore the field and to figure out if engineering is for them with in the safe environment of their high school classroom

ENGR 102 HS benefits high school students by allowing them to: 1) Explore an introduction to engineering and the engineering profession without

having to commit to a semester’s worth of engineering courses at the University level

2) Gain a better understanding of what an engineer is and does; explore a variety of engineering disciplines through campus visits and lab tours

3) Become familiar with the demands and expectations of college-level courses 4) Receive credits for 3 units of required UA engineering coursework at

significantly reduced tuition ENGR 102 HS is unique in that we offer our three unit course in the high school, with a reduced tuition and we are doing this in 28 schools across Arizona and one in California. Unlike AP© credit, three ENGR 102 HS units are bestowed by the university and students receive a university transcript. ENGR 102 HS is directly transferable for all Arizona engineering degree programs and typically transferable as an elective credit out of state. We train high school teachers to deliver the ENGR 102 HS core curriculum and they are allowed the freedom and flexibility to develop additional hands- on projects that interest their students and work in their high school environment.

2. Keys to Program Success

2.1. Outside Seed Funding: Program Set up and Initial Development

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As the ENGR 102 HS pilot was initiated, it became clear that outside funding was needed to grow and coordinate the program. A grant proposal was submitted to the Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) by the COE to secure $500,000 over three years. The grant was awarded and work began in 2009 to expand the program to more high schools, to provide a summer teacher training workshop and to secure a program coordinator.

2.2. Multi Departmental Coordination: Logistics

The logistics of admitting and enrolling high school students to the UA proved to be quite challenging in the beginning. The ENGR 102 HS program coordinator visited participating schools to personally assist students in filling out a paper, non-degree seeking application. At this visit signed parent consent forms, copies of shot records, and payment was collected for the course. Student Health Services entered immunization records; the office of Admissions entered information on applications and matriculated each non-degree seeking student. All documents and payments were then hand delivered to the Outreach College for final course enrollment. This face to face, approach was useful to build trust between school administrations, teachers and the COE, especially if students experienced difficulties with the enrollment process. Enrolling ENGR 102 HS students requires the coordination of the COE, the Outreach College, the Office of Admissions, and Student Health Services. The SFAz grant award covered direct program operational expenses at the COE. Thus, for the first three years, all the tuition collected went to other participating campus entities to offset their additional costs in implementing ENGR 102 HS. This financial arrangement remained while an online system was developed. However, now tuition collected must cover operational costs for all participating departments. Tuition collected was and is set at a greatly reduced rate. Normally, three units of credit at the UA costs ~$2,300. ENGR 102 HS tuition for the 2013-14 cohort was $475. In Fall 2012, a completely online admissions and course registration/ payment system was put in place for all ENGR 102 HS applicants. Students are now able to apply for non-degree seeking admissions online and then register for the course and pay via credit card: all in one sitting. Parent consent forms are scanned by the high school teachers and sent to the coordinator and immunization records are downloaded directly to Student Health Services by the high school nurse. The reputation of the program allows for this stream-lined enrollment service and because of our prior experience, problems that do arise can be anticipated and sometimes avoided completely. Automation of the registration process has allowed for program growth, expansion of the optional curriculum and for remote schools to fully participate in the program.

Figure 1: New teachers in training for ENGR 102 HS-‐ test their solar oven at the 2013 teacher workshop.

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2.3. Recruiting Schools/Building Trust and Enrollments

Once the online process for enrolling students was in place, a push was made to expand to 29 schools and 300 students across Arizona. Table 1 describes ENGR 102 HS program growth, sorted by cohort year. Due to district policies, gaining access into public high schools is not easy, especially for a college of engineering, so the COE approached school districts and interested principals personally. With travel compensation budgeted in to the SFAz award plus funds from the Salt River Project (SRP), the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the COE along with the ENGR 102 HS coordinator and sometimes the Dean of the COE himself traveled all over the state for face to face meetings with school officials. This personal attention from the highest levels of the college demonstrated to school administrations our level of commitment to the success of ENGR 102 HS. Schools now approach the COE to join the program and this personal recruiting technique is not as necessary. Today, in addition to schools that request entry into ENGR 102 HS, targeted recruiting is conducted by the program coordinator to expand to other states, to build student diversity and to improve program sustainability.

While 450 students are currently taking our engineering course from 30 ENGR 102 HS trained teachers, only 301 of those have enrolled in ENGR 102 HS for university

credit. This number dropped from 303 enrolled students last year due to a loss of local scholarship dollars for students in one of our poorest participating school districts. Low enrollments present a problem for a program being run on tuition dollars. While we enjoy an economically diverse population of students, we must maintain enough enrollments in order to keep the program going. With plans to increase tuition for AY2014-15; keeping enrollment numbers up will be a continuing challenge. The primary expense of the program is the teacher workshop. Fortunately, we have obtained outside grant funds from the John Deere Foundation and Texas Instruments Foundation for the annual 2014 ENGR 102 HS teacher workshop. Teacher training is a critical part of the success of the program.

2.4. Quality Instruction

The key to the success of ENGR 102 HS is the quality of instruction. A post-course evaluation survey containing 13 to 20 questions has been administered to ENGR 102 HS students each year of the program. Questions on the survey have varied somewhat year to year, and have focused on student perceived level of learning in the course, the quality of the teaching and self-efficacy in engineering. The data collected from course evaluations have been evaluated and results illustrate that ENGR 102 HS teachers deliver a high quality course and this quality is improving each year.

Figure 2: ENGR 102 HS teachers test a duct tape canoe; one of the many hands-‐on projects presented at the 2013 workshop

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As mentioned earlier, the pilot teacher from Hamilton High School has a BS and MS in electrical engineering, however, he is not the norm. Many of our teachers have undergraduate degrees in Math or Science education and an MS in education. In fact, the teacher who was elected most outstanding ENGR 102 HS teacher by his students in 2012 and went on to win Arizona

Engineering Educator of the year in 2013 has an undergraduate degree in Theater (along with a MS in

Mathematics and Education). The point is that we have found that it does not take an engineer to deliver an introductory engineering course. Rather it requires a gifted, dynamic teacher who has a passion for students and a deep seeded interest in the field of engineering. These qualities, along with our week long summer workshop, prepare high school teachers to deliver ENGR 102 HS. Workshop Atmosphere The annual ENGR 102 HS teacher workshop operates for five days and is typically held at a resort in Tucson AZ, during the off season month of July. Great effort is made to provide nice meals and accommodations so the teachers will feel indulged and look forward to attending each summer. The COE does not pay high school teachers to deliver ENGR 102 HS since it is a dual credit offering in their high school, however, a modest stipend is paid for workshop attendance and travel expenses are covered. The high school teaching team works very hard all week with training sessions starting at 8am each day and they often attend working lunches and dinner- panel discussions. Faculty who teach the ENGR 102 course on campus spend parts of the week training teachers, but also stay a few nights at the resort and share meals and social activities with the team. The high school and university ENGR 102 teaching team bonds in the retreat like atmosphere of the workshop and this is important to form mentor relationships and cultivates group communication and cohesiveness. Since ENGR 102 HS teachers do not receive payment for teaching the course, the professional and personal relationship that develops between the COE faculty and staff and the high school teachers becomes the glue that holds the program together throughout the academic year.

Figure 4: Solar ovens built by ENGR 102 HS students from Catalina Foothills High School

Figure 3: Two Bridges built at Hamilton High School, the ENGR 102 HS pilot school

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Workshop Content The first two days of the workshop are for teachers new to the program and Monday morning begins on campus with tours of the UA COE laboratories and completion of paperwork. The COE retains teachers in an adjunct type status entitled Designated Campus Colleague (DCC), this allows the COE to pay them a stipend for workshop attendance and additional trainings and to reimburse them for travel as well as classroom materials and supplies. Teachers are given a printed teacher’s manual for the course and extensive digital content to include lecture power points, homework assignments and grading rubrics. The remaining time for new teacher training is devoted to the core content of the ENGR 102 course. This content is taught by COE faculty and is the critical link between high school and on campus versions of the course. A full day is spent working through the lesson content for the primary hands-on project in ENGR 102: the design, iterative build and testing of a solar oven. (See Figure 1 and Figure 4) New teachers conclude their portion of the workshop with Excel training in the computer lab, a Design of Experiment (DOE) activity and an extensive catapult, hands-on project that involves collection of data, graphing and analysis. ENGR 102 core content takes about 10-12 weeks to deliver in a high school setting due to the increased classroom time.

Returning teachers join in on Wednesday and everyone completes the last three days of the workshop together. By this time the new teachers have become comfortable with the COE faculty and staff and the addition of 20+ more engineering educators makes for a lively group. As mentioned earlier, the core content takes only 10-12 weeks to deliver in the high school classroom, so the last three days of the ENGR 102 HS summer workshop are devoted to supplemental, hands-on project ideas. These sessions are often taught by the more senior members of the high school team and are as vast and

varied as the ENGR 102 HS teaching team itself. When selecting hands-on sessions to offer, every effort is made to provide complete lesson plans and teaching materials that cover motivating topics such as duct tape canoe building (see Figure 2), service learning and chemical engineering. ENGR 102 HS teachers are thus allowed the freedom to use these lessons in their classrooms or to develop their own lessons- based on personal or their student’s interests. This flexibility is another key component to the success of ENGR 102 HS. The high quality professional educators recruited to teach for the program are allowed the autonomy to make the course their own. 3. Student Course Evaluation Data

To understand the quality of instruction, an ENGR 102 HS student evaluation survey is administered at the end of the academic year. While a short survey was given over the past four years (2009-2013), an updated version of the survey was created two years ago to collect a more comprehensive and informative data set (2011-2013). Complete results and discussion from this data can be found in the ENGR 102 HS paper submitted to these ASEE conference proceedings

Figure 5: Solar/Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car built at CREST-‐ Paradise Valley High School

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under the “Research to Practice” category. Tables 2 and 3 will summarize the survey results. An analysis is provided after each table.

Table 2: How much do you feel you have learned in this course? (n =772, AY2009-10 to AY2012-2013)

Response 2009-2010 (n = 101)

2010-2011 (n = 162)

2011-2012 (n = 199)

2012-2013 (n = 310) Total

(n = 772) An exceptional

amount 22.8% (23) 13.6% (22) 31.2% (62) 32.6% (101) 26.9% (208)

More than usual 43.6% (44) 41.4% (67) 41.7% (83) 42.6% (132) 42.2% (326)

About as much as usual 27.7% (28) 31.5% (51) 22.1% (44) 21.9% (68) 24.8% (191)

Less than usual 5.0% (5) 10.5% (17) 3.0% (6) 2.6% (8) 4.7% (36)

Almost nothing 1.0% (1) 3.1% (5) 2.0% (4) 0.3% (1) 1.4% (11)

Based on the results of this survey question, the majority (69%) of all students (n = 772) expressed that they have learned “more than usual” or “an exceptional amount” from the ENGR 102 HS course. Additionally, 25% of all students (n = 772) stated they have learned as much as usual from this course. Together, these results show that over 94% of students feel they learned as much or more than usual from this course, leaving only 6% of students who felt they learned “less than usual” or “almost nothing.” Overall, these results demonstrate the program’s success by helping students both become familiar with and learn about engineering. Table 3: What is your overall rating of this course (ENGR 102 HS)? (n = 676, AY2009-10 to AY2012-2013)

Response 2009-2010 2010-2011 (n = 162)

2011-2012 (n = 201)

2012-2013 (n = 313) Total

(n = 676) One of the best

No data 35.2% (57) 41.8% (84) 45.7% (143) 42.0% (284)

Better than average No data 30.9% (50) 41.8% (84) 42.2% (132) 39.4% (266)

About average No data 23.5% (38) 13.4% (27) 10.8% (34) 14.6% (99)

Worse than average No data 6.2% (10) 2.0% (4) 1.3% (4) 2.7% (18)

One of the worst No data 4.3% (7) 1.0% (2) 0% (0) 1.3% (9)

No data from AY2009-10 was collected due to an error with the online survey. These results illustrate that over 81% of all students (n = 676) from the past three years have rated ENGR 102 HS as “better than average” or “one of the best” courses they have taken in high school. The table also shows a 21.8% increase over the last three years in rating this course as “better than average” or “one of the best.” In addition to the positive ratings, only 4% of all students (n = 676) rated the course as “worse than average” or “one of the worst.” And this percentage has dropped by 8% over these three years. This table, like the one above, provides a representation that the instructional quality of ENGR 102 HS is highly rated and steadily improving from year to year.

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4. Conclusion

ENGR 102 HS is a unique program that introduces high school students to engineering, early in their academic career. Our research shows that this early introduction allows for student efficacy and exploration of the field of engineering in a safe, familiar environment- the high school classroom. The key to ENGR 102 HS program success is the quality of the instruction that well trained and supported high school teachers deliver to their students. The key to this quality instruction is the annual teacher training workshop that prepares teachers to deliver content, but also focuses on building professional and personal relationships between the UA COE faculty and staff and the high school teaching team. The addition of engineering learning standards to the NGSS will increase K-12 student knowledge of engineering principals and awareness about the work engineers do. The University of Arizona, College of Engineering is looking forward and paying attention to the pipeline of bright, imaginative students coming up through the K-12 educational system and we are leading the way in high school engineering educational initiatives that will attract those creative individuals to the profession of engineering.

Acknowledgements Financial support for this work was provided by the following organizations: the Arizona Department of Education (through SFAz), the Intel Corporation, Salt River Project, the John Deere Foundation and the Texas Instruments Foundation. Special thanks to Beau Vezino and Sanlyn Buxner for data analysis of this work

References 1. Baygents, J., Hunter, J., Goldberg, J. (2011), “Development of the Supply Chain: An AP Engineering

Experience at the State Level,” Proceedings of the 2011 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.

2. B. L. Yoder, “Engineering by the Numbers,” Amer. Soc. Eng. Educ., Washington, DC, USA, 2011.

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Best Practices in K-12 and University Partnerships …...Best Practices Panel ASEE K -12 Division 20...

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