Bringing A Short Hands On Engineering Activity Into High School Classrooms

Hands-on, team-based engineering applications of science and math were designed which could be brought into a high school classroom, with the goal of transferring an excitement for creative engineering to young people. Development of one such activity considered the challenges of matching the activity to the level of mathematical and technical background of students, as well as fitting the topic to a broad scope of high school curriculum areas. This approach combined basic math and familiar subjects to allow students to discover how tools they already know are used in engineering problem-solving. Self-directed student groups worked through the hands-on portion of the project with the assistance of handout procedures and instructor assistance. Questions generated during and after groupwork served as a basis for a discussion matching the interests and knowledge level of students. This project was presented to the high school teachers’ workshop and then to a high school class of chemistry and math students. Experiential results and feedback from high school teachers provide a basis for evaluating this approach.