Search

Finding ways to generate interest in Engineering Technology (ET) is an ongoing challenge for many colleges and universities. Starting early is always recommended; however, employing recruitment initiatives even in high school may yield success when the right motivators are used. Having strong corporate partnerships not only enables delivery of specialized programs but also strengthens the message from both an academic and industry perspective. The authors partnered with an international manufacturing company that offered a national competition to high school students as part of their STEM outreach. Although the event was labeled as being national, the vast majority of teams were located near the company's headquarters. The recruitment begins in October and the final contest is in mid-February. There are several checkpoints along the way which determine whether a team has accomplished enough to stay in the contest. This paper describes one high school competition that began as a "national competition" at a single location in 2009 and has evolved over the past three years to a competition that now includes three regional contests where national qualifiers are selected to compete nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting any group to a particular discipline requires providing opportunities for that group to participate as well as making the experience engaging enough that the participants are eager to learn more. TECHFIT (Teaching Engineering Concepts to Harness Future Innovators and Technologists) is a three-year project designed to spark interest in engineering technology in middle school students, especially minority students. TECHFIT teaches participants about electricity, wiring, safety, programming, and fitness. Each participant team creates their own functional, prototype exergame using a provided technology toolkit. The primary goal of this intervention is to increase student interest in pursuing science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) study, but a related secondary goal is to encourage a healthy lifestyle related to physical activity. This paper will share the design of the TECHFIT program and provide recommendations regarding the approach used to attract all groups, including minorities, to engineering technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]