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Paper Title: Generating Interest in Engineering Through Short Engineering Courses for Children Grades 3-12 Authors: Eric R. Granlund (erg100@psu.edu, 814-949-5192, Fax 814-949-5547) Department of Engineering and Engineering Technology The Pennsylvania State University Altoona College Sherri R. McGregor Program Aide Continuing Education The Pennsylvania State University Altoona College ABSTRACT This paper is an overview of five different courses related to engineering that were developed for children grades 3-12. These short courses were designed to generate, maintain, and develop a child’s natural interest in science and engineering. These courses include: Explorations in Engineering, Young Engineers, CAD for Kids, Gears, Wheels, and Gasoline, and Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. Most courses have been well received with full attendance and taught at least once with some courses being taught on a yearly basis. The paper covers course descriptions for each course with goals and objectives. Course activities are explained along with equipment needs, suggested class size, meeting times, funding sources and tuition costs. Comments are made concerning the best-received activities. Lastly, comments related to possible impact of courses on student career choices are made. INTRODUCTION The original motivation for engineering courses aimed at the youth of the region was to compliment the summer sports camps and art programs that were already in place at the Penn State Altoona College. Continuing Education Representative John Park had received requests from children and their parents for a course related to engineering. Dr. John Lennox, Professor of Microbiology at the Penn State Altoona College, was teaching a very successful children’s science course entitled Microbiology for Young People. Dr. Lennox suggested that engineering be introduced into his course. I was asked to join Dr. Lennox in teaching an engineering and microbiology children’s course. Our first offering was a combined microbiology and engineering course entitled Critical Thinking and Problem Solving for children ages 9-12 years. The course was well received and repeated several times. It was at this point that John Park and myself decided to offer a children’s course related to just engineering. This course was entitled Young Engineers and was for children ages 8-11 years. Other engineering related short courses were later developed and offered with the help of Continuing Education Representative Sherri R. McGregor. These courses include: Explorations in Engineering, CAD for Kids, and Gears, Wheels, and Gasoline (1). A secondary motivation for the formation of some of these courses was related to recruitment in our Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Technology programs. It was hoped that by exposing students to the exciting field of engineering through a series of activities in the laboratory, we may be able to generate more student interest in the field and attract more potential students to the major, (2), (3). Engineering faculty was asked to participate in teaching a short course that invited student’s grades 10-12, to come to the campus and perform experiments and activities related to engineering. When developing a course the Continuing Education Office representative and the instructor will discuss an idea. The instructor usually determines the age group they prefer to work with, the outline of the program content, and the recommended hours. At that time the Continuing Education representative will give feedback based on their expertise in marketing programs, regarding timeframe, age group, content, etc. Once the faculty member has created the course and estimated how much supplies will cost to offer this program, the Continuing Education representative then creates a budget and prices the course. The Continuing Education Office is responsible for all marketing, registration, fees, refunds and correspondence of the class. The instructor is normally notified one week prior to the class as to whether enough students have enrolled to run the program. As long as the Continuing Education Office covers the cost of the faculty member and the supplies they will conduct the program. At this time the faculty member becomes in charge of the program. The Continuing Education representative may attend the first day of class to help with registration, but otherwise the instructor takes care of everything in the classroom. Normally we do not enroll more than 16 children into a program. This smaller class size gives much more hands-on and one-on-one instruction. Often, with a larger class size of 16-20, we also have an assistant in the classroom.
COURSES What follows is a brief overview of the courses that have been developed at The Penn State Altoona College with comments and recommendations. A. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving (Ages 9-12) This was the first children’s course that I taught related to engineering. I team taught the course with microbiology faculty member Dr. John Lennox.. The courses met on two consecutive Saturdays 8:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M., with a 15 minute break at mid morning for snacks and a room change. The program was partially sponsored by the Central Pennsylvanian Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Their funding allowed us to reduce the tuition per student. The cost of the course was $35 per student with free tuition sometimes given to needy students. The class was divided into two groups with one group going to the biology laboratory and the other group going to the mechanical engineering technology laboratory. At the mid morning break the groups would switch classrooms. The program was intended to enhance critical thinking and problem solving skills by encouraging participants to explore problems in the areas of biology, chemistry, and engineering. Students preformed experiments to find out why some food spoils. They were given demonstrations in photomicrography and Computer Aided Drafting (CAD). Our campus uses AutoCAD as our CAD software package. One activity, designed to develop critical thinking skills, involved a box containing a simple object hidden from view. The students were asked to identify the object by pushing pencils through a grid of holes on top of the box. The pencils would make contact with the object thus transferring the shape of the object to the top of the pencils. The students would then make a guess as to what was inside the box. They would then open the box to find out if their guess was correct. In another exercise, objects were given to students that they would not normally have been exposed to in their daily lives. The students were asked to make educated guesses as to the function of the object or tool. Concepts such as weight, force, velocity, and acceleration were introduced through simple activities. For example, a student’s time to run between two points was measured with a stopwatch and students were asked to calculate their average velocity between the two points. Please note that the math skills of 9 and 12-year student vary greatly. This is one of the reasons, in subsequence children’s engineering courses; I changed the age span to 8-11 years. Another activity that was so popular that I continued its use in later engineering courses was called Dismantle and Discover. The activity centered on students taking various items apart to better understands how they work and the reasons for their design. This activity was connected with the concept of reverse engineering. The students used simple hand tool such as pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets and ratchets, and hammers. Safety glasses were required to be worn by all students. The item taken apart included toasters, VCRs, radios, toys, tape recorders, personal CD players, electric drills, lawn mower engines, chain saws, bicycles, telephones, etc. The items were either donated by campus employees, or purchased inexpensively at second hand stores and yard sales. Overall the course was very successful and was repeated on at least three different occasions. The level of enthusiasm from the students was very high made the courses extremely fun to teach.
B. Explorations in Explorations in Engineering (Grades 10-12) As stated in the introduction, this course was designed primarily to generate interest in the field of engineering with the hopes that this might lead to increased enrollment in our engineering technology programs. The course met two consecutive days during the summer 8:30 A.M.-12:00 P.M., with a break at mid morning for a room change. Students grades 10-12 were invited from local high schools. There was no charge to attend the class. The class involved four engineering faculty members. Each faculty member was responsible for approximately 1½ hours of instruction in his or her field of expertise. The class introduced the students to the field of robotics, giving students the opportunity to program a robot. Students were asked to create and plot drawings using a CAD system. They were given a demonstration of a computer vision system. They also conducted experiments in material properties using a tension tester and Charpy Impact tester. The students even had the opportunity to heat treat steel test specimens. Experiments in electronics were also preformed. I would say the program was moderately successful. The enrollments were good but maybe not as high as programs for younger students ages 8-11 years. This could be due to the fact that the older students may have other obligations during the summer and therefore could not attend. C. Young Engineers (Ages 8-11) This has been by far the most successful of my all children’s programs and continues to be taught during the summer. The goal of the course is to generate interest in the science and engineering fields. I try very hard to make all activities fun for the participants. I also move to another activity fairly quickly when I see the interest level in the class starting to drop. I have found that lengthy explanation on the board showing engineering calculations and diagrams will quickly disinterest this age group of students. The course meets on two or three consecutive days 9:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M., with a break at mid morning for snacks. The cost of the program is $65 for the three-day course and $35 for the two-day course. I teach this course with the aide of one assistant. The assistants have been college work-study students and college students majoring in education. The course has been offered during the past five summers with full enrollment. Because of the number of students retaking the courses every year the content has been varied somewhat to give them fresh material. The program gives the participant a variety of experiences in the engineering field. One of the activities is tower building. In this activity the students build towers using spaghetti and gumdrops. The students usually can construct a 2-3 foot tower in about 30 minutes. I also have students building bridges from the same materials. Another activity that was carried over from the Explorations in Engineering course is an activity called Dismantle and Discovery. As explained earlier in this paper, students dismantle a variety of objects with simple hand tools to observe their principles of operation. Students are given a short demonstration in CAD using the AutoCAD software package. Students are also asked to build a model rocket. The physics of rocket propulsion and flight are explained in very simple terms. The first time I did this activity I used plastic 2-liter beverage bottles as the main body of the rocket. With adult assistance I had the students cut out fins from balsa wood and hot glue the fins to the beverage bottle. I had fabricated a special launch coupler from ¼ inch bar stock, PVC pipe, and an automotive tire valve. I would than fill the bottle rocket approximately half full of water and pressurize the system to 75 psi with air from a portable air compressor. When the launch coupler is released the rocket will travel to a height of about 100 feet. In later offerings of the course, I replaced the bottle rockets with commercially available model rockets such as Quest or Estes rockets. They are available in packets of 12 for educational purposes. The capstone activity of the course is the team design project. The students are asked to design and build a raft that their team will enter in a race at the conclusion of the course. They have to work as a team in order to complete construction of the raft. The students are only allowed to use 2 by 2-inch boards, rope, duct tape, and plastic 2-liter beverage bottles. I explain the principle of buoyancy so the students can calculate how many bottles they will need to make the raft float. Again, under adult supervision the students use handsaws to cut the wood to construct the frame of their raft. The raft is tied together with rope and the beverage bottles are taped to the frame of the raft. This activity really gets the students motivated to work and apply their design skills. The race takes place at the campus indoor swimming pool. The student’s family members are invited to attend the race. D. CAD for Kids (Ages 9-12) This course was created in response to the strong student interest in the CAD demonstrations that were given in the children’s course Young Engineers. The course was designed to give participants an introduction to computer aided drafting. The course met on two consecutive Saturdays 9:00 A.M. – 11:30 AM, with a 15 minute break at mid morning for snacks. The cost of the course was $25 per student. The students received instruction in the fundamentals of AutoCAD Version 12 software package. The commands included line, arc, circle, ellipse, polygon, text, dimensioning, erase, cross hatching, move, zoom, pan, snap, array, grid and line types. The students were taught as a class moving onto the next command only after all the students in the class understood the proceeding command and its use. I would highly recommend obtaining as many assistants as possible for this course. It is very easy for 16 young children to lock up the CAD software. On several occasions I found myself running from student to student trying to unlock their software. Students were given simple exercises to complete and were encouraged to make CAD drawings of their own design. All exercises were plotted out for the students to take home. The class was well received and was repeated three times. I think the use of a new, simple to use, solid modeler such as Solid Works or Iron CAD would be even more interesting to the students than the standard 2-D CAD package. E. Wheels, Gears, and Gasoline (Ages 12-15) This course was designed to target the age group 12-15 years. There were few offerings related to engineering for this age group at our campus. The class met on two consecutive Saturdays 9:00 A.M.-11: 30 A.M. with a 15 minute break at mid morning for snacks. The cost of the course was $35 per student. A grant of $300 from Region III American Society of Mechanical Engineers discretionary fund was used to pay tuition for 8 underprivileged students in this and other children’s engineering courses. The class was highlighted in ASME News (1). The class required a great deal of preparation and the help of several people. David Dix, the owner of Dix Honda car dealership, brought his Formula Ford racecar and let the students inspect its engine and suspension system. Track N Trail Honda motorcycle dealership, loaned several minibikes for closer examination. Shuster Chrysler car dealership, donated a 4-cyclinder automobile engine that was disassembled during the class. Lastly, the campus maintenance department supplied lawnmower engines and a mechanic. The program gave the students a chance to study the development of engines, suspension systems, body styles of automobiles, and motorcycles. The program has been offered once and was well received with full enrollment and high evaluation marks form the participants. I was informed that the 12-15 year old age group would be difficult to work with in a classroom. I did not find this to be the case. I attribute this to the topic, which was of great interest to students in the program. The students wanted to ride the minibikes but were not allowed for insurance reasons. In future offering I would like to add dual seated go karts to the program so that a short test ride by the students with adult supervision would be possible. CONCLUSION In closing, I would like to make a few comments regarding the possible impact the courses have had on students. First, I feel the programs have had a positive impact on the students because of feedback I have received from students and parents. On many occasions parents have commented to me how much their child enjoyed a course. At the close of most courses I have the students fill out evaluation forms. The evaluations have generally been very positive. Moreover, I have had former students from my children’s courses as students in my university engineering courses. Recommendations I would like to make to any faculty teaching children’s engineering courses is to keep the activities as hands-on and exciting as possible. Plan and prepare more activities than you can actually finish. In doing this a faculty member can switch to another activity if an activity does not seem to be holding the children's attention. I highly recommend to faculty that they teach a short course to children. Their enthusiasm level is infectious and it is a nice change from normal college teaching loads.
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