K 12 Outreach For Engineering And Technical Graphics: What Is Our Role?

For years, professionals in Engineering Education have struggled with the need to recruit more and better prepared students into fields related to engineering. Recently, there has been a push to develop pre-engineering programs for public secondary education programs that will help with the recruitment and provide high school students with the needed background for success as an engineering student. Many disciplines have initiatives related to this new trend in public education, but with limited success, as it is so new to states curricula. Considering this new era of pre-engineering education and student’s needing to receive a foundation in areas related to engineering before they come to college, professionals in our field need to ask the following questions; what is the role of engineering design graphics in this new curricula approach? How is engineering graphics viewed by those organizations that are developing materials in pre-engineering and what are the expected outcomes? Also, is there research that supports our task as engineering graphics educators to become involved in this new curricula initiative in secondary education and how will this national effort effect the students we will have in our classes once they chose to attend college. Although many of these questions can only be answered in theoretical terms, a foundation of history and what professionals in our field and others are doing may help the engineering graphics community decide the position we should engage in pre-engineering education. This paper is designed to give the reader insight as to what is happening in this new pre-engineering initiative from both secondary and post-secondary views. Information about the types and kinds of initiatives currently underway at the national level will be presented as well as what people in the engineering graphics community is doing in meet this pre-engineering curricula need. Conclusions will include a theoretical framework as to what professionals in our field can do to aid in the promotion of engineering design graphics into the k-12 outreach for engineering education. I. Pre-Engineering Education “Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.” (Scott Adams, 1957) Technology and engineering has played major roles in developing the US economy. Many companies consider engineering the “driving-force” behind their success and growth that will help each remain competitive in the global market place in the coming years. Considering this, many professionals in the fields of education and engineering feel that it is imperative that everyone in our society have technological competence and the ability to create, use, manage, and assess technology, including young students in our k-12 schools. Statements like the ones mentioned above are being made throughout the country by business and education leaders, and at the same time, elementary and secondary students interest in technology and engineering disciplines continue to fade each year. Although, it is believed by many professionals in education that students have a deep interest in technologies that they deal with day-to-day, few possess the background and knowledge to understand the underlying principles associated with these everyday technologies. Some states, federal agencies, and professional organizations have started to make an effort towards fulfilling these needs and deficiencies, but more is needed from a variety of disciplines from both public and private agencies 1 . P ge 11852.2 Engineers and technologists are important and vita to the profitability of the US economy. The U.S. Department of Labor statistics reveal that 20% more engineers are needed over the next decade 2 and that Engineering education had its “peak” of student majors in the early 1980’s with over 450,000 students entering into some form of engineering or technology program. But since that time, the nation has experienced a 25% drop in students majoring in a field related to engineering. Included in this downward trend, diversity continues to be a struggle as well. As of to date, consider the statistic that of the four million students graduating from high school each year, only two percent will earn an engineering degree, and only one percent of all high school graduates that are female will obtain a similar degree. Less than 15% of all high school graduates have had sufficient rigorous math and science courses that will allow them to be successful in an engineering program 3 . Because of this current trend in education and students not choosing engineering as a career, the federal government has placed a major emphasis in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) outreach to K-12 students so that the country can continue to have a ready supply of engineers and technologist for the future. Research money has been given out by many federal agencies to research and develop STEM fields, but with little success for the amount of money invested to research and improve upon STEM education in our public schools. As of 2004, and relative to the last 10 years, the National Institute of Health as invested 998 million dollars in STEM research and outreach. The National Science Foundation is no exception with a total of 997 million dollars, and NASA with 231 million dollars of STEM research, as well as the Department of Education at 221 million and the Environmental Protection Agency at 121 million dollars in STEM-based research dollars 4 . Preparing students for fields related to engineering and technology is nothing new, just as well as the fact that more students are needed in these areas at different points in our history. One can trace the roots of pre-engineering education to the Dutch back in the 1650’s. In the US, private career schools came commonplace in the 1820’s and in 1917, the Vocational Act was the first time the federal government became involved in supporting training in fields related to engineering education at the secondary level. During the first half of the 19 th century, we established the formative years for career and technical education thanks to the industrial revolution. Although many opportunities for career education in engineering and related fields were in the private sector, over time, the public universities began to offer degrees and federal Acts like the Land Grant Acts, Defense Acts, and others formalized engineering and technical education as we see it today 5 . At Ohio State University for example, Calvin Woodward and Professor Robinson in engineering established a manual training program as a part of an existing engineering program (Personal Communications with Karen Zuga, September 2, 2005). Other programs followed at land-grant universities across the United States. These programs later came know as industrial arts education and currently, technology education. Considering this, technology education had some of the first leaders in what has led to the current rationale for pre-engineering education. In a document titled “Curriculum to Reflect Technology written in 1947 by William Warren, one of the first leaders in technology education, called for engineering education and training in the local public high schools. Later, two technology education leaders by the names of Olson and DeVore in the 1960’s developed curriculum projects titled “IACP” and “Jackson Mills” that led to the new curriculum in technology education that provides more than just skill-based training, but curricula that develops students literacy in critical thinking, problem-solving and design. Donald Maley and the research and experimentation emphasis in his “Maryland Plan” in the 1970-80’s and the national focus on design in the 1990’s has made technology education one of the main catalysts for pre-engineering education 6 . This can also easily be recognized in the “State Career Clusters” curriculum project in 2001 that established needed standardization for curriculum related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the US Department of Education 7 . Also, by the development of the new Standards for Technological Literacy in 2000 produced by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) that not only highlight areas of study for technology, but has direct emphasis on engineering design, problem-solving, and the understanding of technological systems 8 . Engineering graphics and its role in engineering education is nothing new to engineering education 9 . Various research studies have been conducted on students interested in an engineering or technology career and the need for visual skills 10 . The profession of engineering graphics has researched areas in visualization, gender, and spatial abilities for the past 20 years and has found that students do see the need for visual skills as they are related to engineering and technology career paths. Most projects that are pre-engineering based for secondary school do have some form of design or graphics within its program’s content to aid in bringing about the hands-on approach that allows for better understanding of engineering and technology concepts. For example, the National Center for Research in Vocational Education in 1993 developed the Pre-Engineering Academy for states to use that will lead students towards careers in engineering and technology. This academy approach had five areas of concentration, P ge 11852.3 one being graphics. Within the graphics area of study, students took classes in engineering graphics and descriptive geometry, as well as incorporated design elements into another concentration area called strength of material 11 . Considering the above information, the authors of this paper have found that most pre-engineering approaches that include engineering graphics come in one of the following ways. First, as a separate course in engineering and sometimes can be articulated to post-seco