Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

DOI

10.18260/1-2-370-38734

Publication Title

Proceedings of the 2020 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration, CIEC 2020

Pages

10 pp.

Conference Name

2020 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration, May 6-9, 2020, Virtual On Line

Abstract

The Engineering Technology (ET) degree emphasizes hands-on application and implementation. Graduates holding this degree play a valuable role in economically growing the US and keeping it internationally competitive. However, “engineering and engineering technology, are widely misunderstood… the public sector (employers, students, high-school counselors, politicians and the general public) needs to be educated as to the particular value of each,” according to Engineering.com [1]. The National Academy of Engineering states, “Unlike the much better-known field of engineering, engineering technology is unfamiliar to most Americans and goes unmentioned in most policy discussions about the US technical workforce. This is even though workers in this field play an important role in supporting the nation’s infrastructure and capacity for innovation” [2].

In the above context, outreach by ET programs to K-12 constituents including students, teachers, and even parents is extremely important. The outreach activity can take many forms. It may be as simple as a visit to classroom either by ET faculty or students to a K-12 classroom for a show and tell. Inviting high school and middle school students and teachers to engineering open houses and campus visits can be another effective method. In addition to these traditional methods, new and innovative methods of outreach can use social media tools to reach out to students and parents. Another method for increasing awareness about ET programs is via career day events. This paper discusses various methods for outreach including some case studies of tried and tested methods.

Comments

© 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. 2020 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration, Virtual, On Line.

Original Publication Citation

Verma, A. (2021) Engineering technology programs outreach to K-12. Paper presented at 2020 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration, Virtual. http://dx.doi.org/10.18260/1-2-370-38734

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