Table of Contents

Foreword by Cary Sneider
Introduction - Purple Cable Ties

Chapter 1 - The New Face of Engineering

• What do they do?
• Engineers are Creative?
• What Does an Engineer Look Like?
• Many Roads to Engineering
• Engineering is Communication and Teamwork
• Catering to Diverse Cultures
• Salary
• Engineering Attributes

Chapter 2 - Girls in Engineering

• Effective Strategies for Engaging Girls
• The Percentage of Bachelors Degrees Awarded to Women in 2007
• Bachelors Degrees in Engineering by Gender

Chapter 3 - Teaching Engineering

• 50 Reasons to Teach Engineering
• Information Overload
• Updating the Dialog
• Engineering Education Standards
• Engineering and Personality
• If you work with high school students
• If you work with middle school students
• If you work with elementary school students
• If you work with secondary students through outreach
• If you work with secondary students through Counseling
• Professional Development

Chapter 4 - Successful Strategies

• Begin by Celebrating
• Separate the boys and girls when completing hands-on projects
• Make Glamorous Associations/Celebrity Engineers
• Find out what students like and link it to engineering
• Become Well Informed
• Provide Mentors
• Network
• Engineers Week
• Summer Camps
• Student Competitions
• Clubs
• How to Talk About Math
• Use Music to Build an Emotional Connection
• Use Graphics to Enhance Meaning
• Engineering Fairs

Chapter 5 - Successful Curriculum, Programs and Projects

• Pre-Engineering Curriculum and Projects
• Exciting Initiatives
• Learning Laboratories
• Beyond K-12

Chapter 6 - Fourteen Exciting Hooks that Engage Student Interest

• Sports Equipment Design
• Animatronic and Animation Engineering
• Roller Coasters and Themed Attractions
• Eating
• Music
• People Engineering
• Space Engineering
• Animal Engineering
• Computers and Connectivity
• Doctors, Lawyers, CEO’s Writers, Teachers, Politicians, Inventors and Entrepreneurs
• Sales, Testing, Systems, Design, Quality, etc.
• Feeding the World
• Energy Engineering
• Save the World Engineering!

Chapter 7 - For the Parents of Budding Engineers

• Ten Strategies to Nurturing an Engineer

Chapter 8 - Recommendations and Conclusions
Recommendations

• Student Interest Chart
• An Achievable Goal
• Winning Attributes

Appendix
References
Websites

Online Sample - Foreword by Cary Sneider

Thanks to pioneering educators like Celeste Baine, engineering education is beginning to find a home in classrooms and clubhouses from Maine to California. Educators nationwide are discovering that engineering is just as engaging, fun, educational, and important for students to learn—as science. In fact, it’s surprising that it’s not the other way around; with engineering part of the educational bedrock, and science looking for a toehold. After all, there are many more jobs for engineers in our country than for scientists, and the engineering processes of invention and innovation underpins our economy. So why does it take a pioneer to bring the obvious to light?

The answer to that question can be found in the delightful chapters of this volume, starting with a colorful introduction by the author about the joyful life of an engineering educator. The book is not a carefully reasoned treatise filled with facts and figures (although there is a good sprinkling of those in the right places), but rather an invitation to explore the many great opportunities to share the fun of engineering with boys and girls of all ages.

Chapter One—The New Face of Engineering—tackles one of the misconceptions about engineering head-on, that it’s an all-male geeky occupation. The dozens of interesting engineering occupations, the important role that engineers play in society, and the wide variety people who become engineers quickly dispel the myth, and replace it with a kaleidoscope of intriguing opportunities.

Chapter Two—Girls In Engineering—immediately wows the reader with amazing accomplishments of women engineers, including a famous movie star. The chapter easily transitions to ideas for getting girls interested in engineering.

Chapter Three—Teaching Engineering—starts out with the “whys” and quickly progresses to the “how to’s” at different age levels, inside and outside of traditional schools.

Chapter Four—Successful Strategies—offers lots of practical suggestions for how to overcome the stereotypes, build on students’ natural interests, and get students engaged in a wide variety of engineering activities in many different settings.

Chapter Five—Successful Curriculum, Programs and Projects—connects with the many other efforts nationwide, to strengthen the foundations of engineering education with well-developed instructional materials so that educators who want to teach engineering don’t have to reengineer the wheel.

Chapter Six—Exciting Hooks that Engage Student Interest—provides over a dozen ways that are “guaranteed” to lure the least-interested student to hunger for more engineering design activities.

Chapter Seven—For the Parents of Budding Engineers—encourages parents to get involved and learn as much as they can about engineering. Using the “Ten Strategies to Nurture an Engineer” every parent is sure to find ways to help their child.

Chapter Eight—Recommendations and Conclusions—leaves the reader with new enthusiasm for sharing the fun of engineering education with at least one, and maybe hundreds of tomorrow’s budding engineers. Heaven knows we’ll need their help in coping with a world population that may exceed ten billion people.

As for the question in the opening paragraph—Why does it take a pioneer to bring the obvious to light? After all, by now there have been enough government reports and gloomy forecasts that if we don’t educate more engineers we’ll be in big trouble as a nation. So we know where we have to go. But it takes a pioneer like Celeste Baine to make us want to get there.

Cary Sneider
Associate Research Professor
Portland Stand University, Portland, Oregon