Attracting Minorities to ET through TECHFIT.

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]