New Mexico State University Bridges for Engineering Education

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

The need for effective teaching and learning is reflected in the national literature on education practices and in the recently revised accreditation criteria for schools of engineering - Engineering Criteria 2000 - recently implemented by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000) has been a catalyst for reform in engineering education, providing an opportunity to increase effectiveness of teaching and learning within the engineering curriculum. The NMSU Bridges for Engineering Education (NMSU BEE) program, proposes to extend this emphasis on effective teaching and learning within engineering education to the pre-college level through a strongly aligned multi-level curriculum designed to attract students to the engineering profession, beginning at the middle school level, and ensure that they are academically prepared to be successful in university engineering programs. Full implementation of the interventions and strategies developed under this planning grant would provide important opportunities to local middle and high school students for enhancing their educational success early on in their pre-college schooling, thereby increasing their chances for a smooth and successful transition into the NMSU College of Engineering undergraduate degree programs. Through this collaborative effort of middle and high school teachers and NMSU faculty from engineering, education, and the cognitive sciences, the goals are to develop a strong organizational structure grounded in a professional development framework that: 1) supports teachers and students in exploring and understanding engineering content in K-12 education through professional development activities and engineering-specific curriculum units, 2) improves the pedagogy in undergraduate engineering education in a manner that is responsive to the new ABET criteria and which incorporates writing-to-learn approaches and current theories of learning and cognition, 3) extends the application of and response to the ABET criteria in meaningful ways to the middle and high school levels; 4) results in a rich collection of data that can effectively contribute to curriculum revisions at all three levels; and 5) produces a responsive evaluation methodology that is accountable to the project's many stakeholders.