The Curie River Basin: Introduction To Engineering In A Social Context

The Elements: 40 academically gifted high school girls; a nationally recognized engineering college, seven days. The Task: Create a sense of excitement about and an awareness of the limitless possibilities in engineering. Cornell’s Strategy: The CURIE Academy, a week-long, residential summer engineering experience comprising field-specific information sessions, panel discussions, team and leadership building, hands-on activities, all focusing on a complex, multi-disciplinary project. The CURIE 2000 project was a water quality management problem that highlighted technical, social, political, and economic aspects of “real life” engineering. The project was created and delivered by a graduate student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with support from five undergraduate Program Assistants who facilitated the group interactions and provided social mentoring for the girls. The challenges and rewards of such an ambitious project were plentiful. The CURIE experience not only increased the girls’ awareness of the opportunities and technical challenges in engineering, but also allowed them to experience the complex interaction among our society, technology, and environment—an issue not often addressed in the early stages of engineering education.