Celeste Baine's Blog about Marketing Engineering Education

Celeste Baine's thoughts, perceptions and ideas about marketing engineering education.

April 2008 Archive

Celeste Baine's Blog

Email Me

Books by Celeste Baine

Engineering Principles Teacher's Guide

Engineering Graphics Teacher's Guide

Aeronautical Engineering Teacher's Guide

Civil Engineering Teacher's Guide

Teaching Engineering Made Easy: A Friendly Introduction to Engineering Activities for Middle School Teachers

The Musical Engineer: A Music Enthusiast's Guide to Engineering and Technology Careers

The Fantastical Engineer: A Thrillseeker's Guide to Careers in Theme Park Engineering - Second Edition

High Tech Hot Shots: Careers in Sports Engineering

Is There an Engineer Inside You?: A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering

The Next Greatest Generation - Our Future Needs Your Mind

The Next Greatest Generation web portal will be a free K-12 resource center for educators and students with a support community of mentors, corporations, organizations and associations that are concerned about our nation's crisis in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

The Next Greatest Generation was developed to help improve the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math through the explicit use of knowledge-based tutorials, shared curriculums & activities, on-line support groups, and educational on-line games that will help keep teachers enthusiastic, energetic, and informed.

Do you think it will work? Would you use it? If you like the idea, please visit the Grassroots page (http://www.nextgreatestgeneration.com) and add your name to the growing list of educators, students, and parents who are behind the campaign to fully develop the Next Greatest Generation web site.

Teachers can create their own customizable curriculum-based Learning Laboratories by combining Hands-on activities and online STEM games into a teaching template, by grade & subject, that can be saved and shared.

Send any comments to Ray Shingler (219) 548-7566 or RShingler@NextGreatestGeneration.com

Graduate Certificate in Secondary Teaching for Engineers at Boise State University

Always wanted to teach high school or junior high? Thanks to an innovative, cooperative program, engineering students and professionals can earn Idaho secondary teaching certification through the Graduate Certificate program at Boise State University, often with just one additional year beyond their BS degree.

Students with a bachelor's degree in an engineering field can apply to the graduate certificate program either after years of experience as an engineer, after completion of their bachelor's degree, or even in the final year of their BS program. The graduate teaching certificate program is designed to be completed in a summer plus a fall and spring semester (one calendar year) of full time study.

For engineers the certification fields that are easiest and most appropriate for them to pursue, based on their major, include:
Civil Engineering: Chemistry, Mathematics, Physical Science, Physics
Computer Science: Mathematics
Electrical Engineering: Mathematics, Physical Science, Physics
Material Science and Engineering: Chemistry, Mathematics, Physical Science, Physics
Mechanical Engineering: Mathematics, Physical Science, Physics

Students seeking certification at either the undergraduate or graduate levels in Mathematics or one of the sciences can qualify for a stipend through the National Science Foundation Noyce Grant. Qualifying students receive up to $10,000 for one year in return for a commitment to teach for two years in a "high needs" school district.

There is also information available at the Boise State University College of Engineering website: http://coen.boisestate.edu/GradCertificate/index.asp

How to Talk About Math

On an airplane last weekend I sat next to a guy that said he wanted to be an engineer but could not get through the math. I asked him what he does today and he told me was an investment banker. I shook my head and asked if investment bankers took any math in school and he said that he had many math classes in college but he thought business math was easier than engineering math.

As many of you know and probably struggle against, math is the gatekeeper. Perceptions about math have changed the course of millions of lives. Sometimes, all it takes is a bad teacher in first or second grade to change a student's direction and sometimes it is just too full of details like changing a minus sign to plus when putting it on the other side of the equal sign. Sometimes, tending to the details of math (and life) can seem overwhelming.

But, we need to tell students that math is just one tool in the engineer's box. Math and science are important tools to understanding the world but they are not the only tools that a person uses to solve problems. Fortunately, in engineering, there are thousands of different types of jobs. A student can choose a job that is very math intensive or they can choose a job that does not require as many calculations. The important thing is to learn why and when math should be applied and know what the approximate answer should be. For example, if an engineer is on-site at a location and enters an equation into a computer, he or she should have an idea what the answer should be so they can know if the computer is even close. If the computer is not close, that tells them that an assumption that was entered into the computer as part of the equation might not be correct.

According to the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), the engineering jobs requiring the most math are: research, complex analysis, complex design and development. The jobs requiring the least amount of math are marketing and sales, test and evaluation and manufacturing.

There is something for everyone in engineering. Every student can personally design his or her future. Other tools in the box include creativity, communication skills, teamwork skills, common sense, analytical ability, writing skills, presentation skills and time management.

The NASA Problem

Last October I had the privilege of seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery launch at Banana Creek in Florida. In exchange for this treat, I attended an all-day educational conference hosted by NASA. NASA is working to build a rocket to go to the moon. On the moon, they want to build a launch pad to go to Mars. That's a lot of engineering! This will require Astronauts to spend up to six months at a time on the Moon. However, there is concern that kids aren't interested in the space program. Most people don't even know about NASA's future plans.

All day, I listened and everyone exchanged ideas about the best ways to address the problem. I hope they follow through on even half of the ideas provided.

Last week, I visited the NASA AMES facility at Moffett Field in California. The AMES facility has the largest wind tunnel in the US (and maybe the world). It's 80' x 120' and has it's own power grid so they don't give regular brown-outs to the local neighborhoods (it is estimated that the wind tunnel uses something close to $1000/minute in electricity!) Engineers and scientists are doing absolutely fantastic work at AMES! However, what struck me as odd was the gray landscape. As I was driving through the campus I saw very flat and rectangular buildings with drab exteriors. The buildings looked very old, there was no color and the environment was extremely structured. You'd never know anything exciting was going on and you'd never know that anyone doing exciting work was inside.

At the NASA conference last October, one of the ideas to recruit was to offer tours of the different facilities. If I were a kid that watched TV, surfed the Internet and enjoyed seeing color, I'd have no interest in working there. When we are young, it's very rare to choose a career where all the excitement of working is cerebral. Middle school students often choose careers based on who they know, how it looks and how they think it will make them feel. They want to see themselves in the role (especially girls). In the NASA case described above, a student might be better off visualizing themselves in the rocket engineer role from books, clips of Apollo 13 or the The Right Stuff and the Discovery Channel instead of actually visiting the research facility. At least until they are older and more secure in their decisions.

I Need My Space

Assuming that astronauts, spacewalks and rockets already enamor students, the greatest thing about motivating students to pursue engineering or technology in this arena is that they can be almost any type of engineer to get involved. When I was a kid, I thought that I had to be an aerospace engineer to become an astronaut and get a job at NASA. I had no interest in aerospace so I never even entertained the idea of being a part of the space program.

For students today, I'm happy to say that I had bad information. NASA hires biomedical engineers to make space suits, chemical engineers to help with life support systems, mechanical engineers work on almost everything, electrical engineers work on control systems, etc. There are endless opportunities for students in this field and they don't have to narrow their interests to succeed. Some engineers might spend their days fine-tuning a set of million dollar micro-cameras so the rovers can "see" better while exploring miles of Martian terrain. Or, they might be designing tele-operated mini-rovers in an office that looks more like a high-tech R&D lab at a toy company than a NASA research facility.

Dr. Sally Ride gives great advice to students. She says, "The most important steps that I followed were studying math and science in school. I think the advice that I would give to any kids who want to be astronauts is to make sure that they realize that NASA is looking for people with a whole variety of backgrounds: they are looking for medical doctors, microbiologists, geologists, physicists, electrical engineers. So find something that you really like and then pursue it as far as you can and NASA is apt to be interested in that profession."

NASA's web site is full of information to help you engage students. You can watch video of the shuttle launch and even see it from a camera on the solid rocket boosters. There are numerous pictures and classroom activities for every age. It's easy to get information and students involved by visiting http://www.nasa.gov.

Princeton Engineering Class Development

I am a teacher at an urban high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. My school is a relatively large, four-year comprehensive high school that serves approximately 1,800 students. Approximately 82% of the graduates attend college with 60% going to four-year schools and 22% enrolling in two year/technical schools. Princeton's average ACT composite for the past three years was 22.3. The average SAT composite in that same period was 1070.

Our Elementary schools do not have an active Technology Education Program; however, with the new Technology Director in the district, there is a push to make any new program changes meet the demands of the Technology Curriculum in Ohio. Our Middle School Technology Education program uses a modular system. We went modular 9 years ago. Since they went modular, they have upgraded the lab several times.

Princeton High School Technology Education Department has six teachers. Our program includes 37 courses in eight different areas. These areas are Pre-Engineering, Mechanical and Architectural Drafting, Graphics, Electricity-Electronics, Manufacturing, Construction, Power and Energy, and a math review course for students that did not pass the Ohio Graduation Test.

The newest class we developed for the 2007-2008 school year is called Engineering Your Future. This class is a pre-engineering class covering 10-12 engineering areas. This class is a year long honors level pre-engineering class. We have been developing this class for over one year. How this class got started was interesting. Two catholic girls' high schools, Mt. Notre Dame and Mother of Mercy, in the Cincinnati area went to the University of Cincinnati's Engineering Department asking for help in developing a class for their girls to introduce them to the engineering field. The UC professor that took charge of the class had students attending Princeton and asked the Math, Science, Technology Education, and Computer Science Departments to come to a planning meeting. All of the departments sent representatives to the first meeting. As planning sessions progressed, the university and participating high schools looked at several pre-engineering programs that were already in place. One principle plan that was looked at then dismissed was Project Lead the Way. That program did not provide for enough flexibility for the high schools in our consortium. The University of Cincinnati wanted to develop a high school course that was similar to their first year engineering course. It is an exploratory class in engineering. It surveys several different disciplines. The university wanted the high schools to teach by hands-on laboratory experience. The University would supply the lectures. Students' homework would be watching the lessons from the professors at home. Then, when they come to class, there would be labs designed around the lectures. All three high schools thought this was a good idea. We met once a month to discuss what should be taught and how it could be taught. All three high schools had engineering fields of interest they wanted to teach and the University's had some areas also. Over a period of about 2-3 months, a course outline was developed. The thought process that went into the outline was to make the class interesting to both sexes, and cover material they would need to know to make an informed decision as to a possible engineering field of study to pursue in college.

If you are considering starting a class like this the suggestions I have for you would be use resources in your area. Team up with your local 2 or 4 year college or university to help develop content areas. Then research the different programs out there to find out what is best for your communities needs. Use your parents. Mine have been extremely helpful. They want to be involved. Your job is to tell them what you want them to do. You may need to give them direction on how to write a lesson, but they want to help. Parents and local engineers are also a good resource to use as guest speakers. The IEEE has a great web sit on how to help engineers be good classroom resource. If you are interested in joining our consortium we would love to help you. We can provide you with the binder and access to the University of Cincinnati's blackboard to get the lessons from there. A public web site regarding our project is now available at www.eng.uc.edu/eet. If you have any other questions about what we are doing at Princeton High School, you can contact me at 513-552-8417 or email me at blien@princeton.k12.oh.us.

Brian Lien

Use Music to Build an Emotional Connection

Over the summer, I tuned into the Live Earth concerts (promoting green to save the planet) and heard a report that discussed the reasons why they use music to build consciousness about global issues. The announcer said they use music because music builds an emotional connection. It is through this emotional connection that people will hear a message that they may not be able to hear otherwise.

So I got to thinking, why don't we do more of that in engineering? Studies show that students involved in music have better grades in math. It seems so obvious. Watch almost any commercial on TV and you'll hear music in the background trying to elicit some emotional response from the viewer. Kids are bombarded with so much stimulus (noise, color and movement) that by the time they get to class, they are tired and maybe having trouble concentrating in a quiet environment. Their world rarely lets them be quiet. And, now that so many middle and high school kids have cell phones, the odds of quiet time have seriously diminished. On one Saturday last month, my 15-year old daughter received 45 calls on her cell phone from friends!

As educators, we can begin the battle by trying to relay information in a way that they are more accustomed to receiving. For example, if you can integrate music into your everyday lessons, you may reach a few more students that otherwise wouldn't listen to your wisdom.

Here are a few examples:

Put soundtracks into your PowerPoint presentations.
If you hold a competition such as Bridge Building, Future City, Robotics, or Rube Goldberg, blast music in the background to build team spirit and an emotional connection between the students and their engineering project.
If your class is rowdy and unfocused, sometimes, playing music can make the students settle down and focus on what you intend instead of on each other.

Use Graphics to Enhance Meaning

Engineering Graphics is a field of engineering that is taught mostly (but not exclusively) in engineering technology programs. It's a technical way to visually communicate ideas, designs, and solutions. However, it is a form of communication that is often overlooked.

Communication, especially in engineering, can mean the difference between getting the job, or not. In this age of IM (Instant Messaging) students need to take every opportunity to enhance their communication skills.

Engineers Week has an activity posted called, "The Microprocessor: Peanut Butter and Jelly Activity." In this activity, students create a precise set of instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is an excellent communication activity because after the students work on writing the instructions, you can have them redo the activity using text and illustrations or just with illustrations.

All forms of communication are valuable and when using graphics to convey ideas, you may see the spark in a student's eye that wasn't there before.

Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwich Activity Web page

The Big Benefit of Engineering Camps

Summer camps can provide an innovative approach to preparing for a career in engineering or evaluating if that career is the right choice. Students can find out what it is like to study engineering, about the different types of engineers and what engineers do on a daily basis. Most engineering schools offer residential or commuter summer engineering camps for middle or high school students. In addition to problem solving skills, camps can help students develop leadership and professional and personal organizational skills; and they provide opportunities to meet and talk with engineers during visits to local engineering companies.

In your efforts to recruit students, by just saying that you are a great engineering or engineering technology school and listing the benefits, you are essentially positioning yourself to be just like everyone else. There is nothing remarkable about attending. It will be the usual college experience.

Today‚ smart recruiters attempt to become objective resources for their prospective students and families.

In their ads, instead of saying, "HEY LOOK WHAT WE HAVE!" they might say, in a roundabout way, "Hi there, friend. I understand you may be interested in attending engineering school. I hope you'll consider coming here, but in the meantime, we have this terrific engineering camp that may help you decide if we are right for you."

That's a different approach, and it's very effective. Instead of pushing your school down their throats, you are reaching out to prospective students as a friend who understands their needs.

The EESC maintains a listing of engineering camps and it is the most frequently visited page on our site. Currently, our Web site is getting in excess of 300,000 hits per month so if your program is not listed, click on the Add or modify a listing link and get it online. There is no cost. Web site: http://www.engineeringedu.com/summercamps.html

Article was adapted from, "Use your ads to make friends" at Brand University. http://www.nextstepmagazine.com/nextstep/articlePage1.aspx?artId=2726&categoryId=28

Merging Art and Science - Excerpt from "The Fantastical Engineer"

Theme parks merge science and art in an attempt to create an illusion that is so close to reality that your mind and emotions cannot distinguish the real from the magical. The idea behind the development of most theme parks is to envelop the visitor in a seemingly different time and place.

Walt Disney opened Disneyland, the first theme park, on July 17th, 1955. Disneyland was different from other amusement parks at the time because its attractions and rides told stories. A story told in a theme park attraction strives to engage all five of the guests' senses. A well-told story weaves a complex web that engages the guest's vision, hearing, smelling, tasting, and sense of touch. A wonderful attraction can make people laugh and cry and want to applaud an illusion that feels like reality.

Imagineering, a term coined by Walt Disney, refers to the work of a team of people who are responsible for the creation and development of all elements of a theme park. This unique team can include illustrators, architects, interior designers, landscape designers, machinists, writers, artists, researchers, schedulers, sound technicians, model-makers, filmmakers, carpenters, estimators, accountants, industrial designers, graphic designers, and of course, engineers. According to Nathan Naversen, a themed attraction designer and consultant, "Engineers figure out a way to make it work. Whether it be sizing the structural columns and measuring shear forces on a roller coaster, or developing new electronics to make an animatronic character function (animatronics is the electronic technology used to animate motorized puppets or characters.) Engineers do the math to make everything stand up."

Civil, structural and mechanical engineering are the most common majors for engineers on the Imagineering team.

How do they make it all stand up? Imagineers attempt to transport the guest to the magical story-world they have created. Illusion and reality often overlap. The more senses that an engineer can engage simultaneously, the more real the created environment seems to be. To have a make-believe environment seem real, the technology behind it must be invisible. Art and science must blend into illusion. The imagineers know they have done their job well when their guests return again and again to experience the magic they have created.

Appealing to the five senses is no easy task. It may take a whole team of people working together to create a feature that engages only one sense.

Entertainment engineering is a hot topic to motivate students. To read more, visit: http://engineeringedu.com/store/fantastical.html

Back to the EESC home page