Archive for December, 2008

K-12 Engineering Education Programs

Posted by John Hunter on December 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

Celeste’s Top 11 List of K-12 Engineering Education Programs

1) Engineering the Future (EtF): Science, Technology, and the Design Process is a laboratory course for the first year of high school science, created to help a broad spectrum of students. EtF is a full-year lab course organized around four projects, each of which is divided into several tasks. The entire course can be implemented on a modest budget.

2) Engineering is Elementary – This project develops curricular materials in engineering and technology education for children in grades K-5 (www.mos.org). Educator support includes lesson plans, assessment materials, and professional development programs that tie into other major content areas, including science and language arts.

3) Project Lead the Way (PLTW) – is a non-profit organization that promotes engineering courses for middle (Gateway to Technology) and high school (Pathway to Engineering) students. The program formally partners with school districts, trains the instructors that will be teaching and implementing the curriculum, and acts as a bridge between educational institutions and private businesses.

Related: K-12 Engineering Education – Education Resources for Science and Engineering – ASEE Workshop on K-12 Engineering Education to Aid Illinois Science Report Card

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FIRST in Kentucky

Posted by John Hunter on December 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

photo of Engineers of Tomorrow students building robotsphoto from the Engineers of Tomorrow, Kentucky web site.

Science and Technology Celebrated in Oldham County (newspaper broke link so it has been removed):

In the early nineties, one man, an inventor by the name of Dean Kamen, set out to solve this problem. Dean founded, FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, an organization dedicated “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.” FIRST’s pilot program began in 1992 with 28 teams from New Hampshire competing in one tournament, now the impact of FIRST in the 2009 season is projected to reach over 194,000 students through four different leagues, with competitions all over the world.

There is only one veteran high school FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team in Kentucky. Fortunately, this year that statistic is changing. Two more Kentucky teams are gearing up to embark on their rookie season. One of these teams is team number 2783, Engineers of Tomorrow (EOT). They are located in Oldham County, Kentucky. EOT has been working since May on various machine shop projects that have helped them gain experience for their upcoming competition season. In November, they were awarded a $6,000 grant from NASA.

The 2009 FRC season will begin on January 3, when teams around the world receive a description of the challenge and a basic kit of parts that will be implemented into their robots. The game is an intense match between two alliances of three teams who work to complete a series of tasks on a playing field during 3 minute rounds. The robots used to compete have a weight limit of 120 pounds. The extreme challenge is that these robots must be designed, built, and tested in just six weeks before being shipped to the team’s regional competition location. In EOT’s case this location will be Purdue University.

Related: Underwater Robot Competition – Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology – FIRST Robotics in Minnesota

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