An Introduction To Engineering Problem Solving And Design For High School Students In The Tennessee Governor's School For The Sciences

For the last several years, recruiting efforts for the College of Engineering have become increasingly important as enrollments have declined, competition for bright high school students has increased, and the importance of non-traditional student representation in engineering has been realized. This paper describes a program, which through an immersion into the engineering design process, combines fun and competition with realistic information about the career of engineering. The Tennessee Governor’s School for the Sciences is a four-week summer program for rising high school juniors and seniors who are among the best and brightest in the state. Morning sessions of the program consist of a common curriculum for all 150 students with courses on computer skills, technical writing, and professional practices and ethics. In the afternoon, the students attend one of six specialty areas with approximately 20-30 students enrolled in each specialty. Each student attends only one specialty area for the entire four weeks. Engineering is one of the specialty areas. Students chosen for this program have expressed an interest in engineering as a possible career choice. Essentially, the students can be divided into two groups – those who know (or think) they want to become engineers and those who want to find out more information about the engineering profession before they make a decision. For the last two summers, the authors have been the instructors for the engineering component of Governor’s School (Pionke in ’96, Parsons in ’97). Also during the past two years, the authors have been involved with two new curriculum initiatives: the development of a sophomore level introductory course in engineering design; and a total redevelopment of the entire freshman curriculum at the University of Tennessee (UT). The new freshman curriculum integrates graphics, computer skills, statics, and dynamics into a comprehensive course that includes an introduction to engineering design and problem solving, teamwork, and essential communications skills. Previous engineering Governor’s School programs had been a survey of offerings from the various departments and had not been highly rated by the students. Given the background of the instructors, the authors decided that the best program for the Governor’s School would be an integrated program, providing an introduction to some of the same concepts and ideas that they had developed for the new freshman curriculum at UT. In this program, the concepts of what engineers do, the engineering design process and problem solving skills are presented via both “open” and “closed” design projects. Three projects are completed during the four-week Page 396.1 program. All projects are design, build, and test. All projects are done in groups with an emphasis on teamwork as well as oral and written communications. At least two oral presentations are required. Written communications include poster papers as well as formal word-processed reports, which must include concept sketches. Feedback provided by the students has been very positive. The students enjoyed the experience and feel that they gained a better understanding of the type of work engineers really do and their role in society. Many students from the summer ’96 program have become engineering students at various colleges and universities (including UT) because of this early exposure to the engineering experience. In addition, due to positive reports by the attendees to fellow students at their respective high schools, engineering has become the most highly requested specialty of the six specialties at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Sciences.