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Engineering Graphics Teacher's Guide |
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Civil Engineering Teacher's Guide |
Teaching Engineering Made Easy: A Friendly Introduction to Engineering Activities for Middle School Teachers |
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Is There an Engineer Inside You?: A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering |
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
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Posted by Celeste Baine on April 30, 2008
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