The Teacher In-Service Program in South America September 25 2008 Trinidad and Tobago Port of Spain Litsa Micheli-Tzanakou IEEE Vice President, Educational Activities

A Few Words about IEEE IEEE is the largest professional engineering association in the world 367,000 members in 150 countries A 501(c)3 organization incorporated in New York Originally concentrating on power engineering and communications, IEEE at present spans technical interests across the spectrum of technology From nanotechnology to oceanic engineering In many respects IEEE has become “the steward of Engineering”

AIEE IRE Established 1884 An American Organization Representing the establishment Rooted in Power Engineering First computers working group Now the Computer Society Established 1908 An international Organization Open to students, young professionals Quick to adopt advances in radar, radio, TV, electronics, computers Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (January 1913) 1963: Merger of AIEE and IRE to create IEEE

What is IEEE? A membership organization A major creator and guardian of technical IP A mechanism to bring people of common technical interests together both geographically and disciplinarily A guardian of the future of Engineering An implementer of technology-related public Imperatives

What is IEEE? A membership organization A major creator and guardian of technical IP A mechanism to bring people of common technical interests together both geographically and disciplinarily A guardian of the future of Engineering An implementer of technology-related public Imperatives

What does IEEE do? Publishes literature in engineering, technology and computing Organizes conferences Develops standards Gets engineers and technologists from different locales together Organizes professional activities among engineering students Educates the public about Engineering

What does IEEE do? Publishes literature in engineering, technology and computing Organizes conferences Develops standards Gets engineers and technologists from different locales together Organizes professional activities among engineering students Educates the public about Engineering

Total IEEE Membership 1963 - 2007 1993 1983 1973 1963 Provided by John Day from MDC Meeting Feb 07. Based on Year end data.

IEEE Higher Grade Membership 1963 - 2007 Provided by John Day from MDC Meeting Feb 07. Based on Year end data. Excludes Graduate Student Member (GSM) grade

IEEE Student Membership 1963 - 2007 Provided by John Day from MDC Meeting Feb 07. Based on Year end data. Above data includes Students and GSMs

IEEE Membership By Region 31 December 2007 67,157 R1 to 6 – 212,838 R7 – 15,947 R1 – 37,973 R2 – 32,363 R3 – 30,782 R4 – 23,555 R5 – 29,020 R6 – 59,145 Provided by John Day from MDC Meeting Feb 07. Based on Year end data. Reflecting the global nature of IEEE, R8 and R10 are now the two largest IEEE Regions

Why is IEEE interested in pre-university engineering education Because it is in our stated and un-stated mission Because in many IEEE Sections there is marked decline in the interest of young people in Engineering This is bad for the future of these communities and would have a negative impact on their standard of living Because we do not believe the problem is going to be tackled effectively without us Industry does not appear to be able to address the problem directly Governments do not appear sufficiently concerned (yet) Other engineering associations look up to us

What is the Problem? Flat or declining engineering enrollments in most developed nations Coupled with disappointing performance of youth in Mathematics E.g., “free fall” in Scandinavia Insufficient number of engineers and engineering educational programs in most developing countries Asia is far behind Europe and the US in number of engineers per capita

What is the Problem? Women & minority students conspicuously under-represented Public perception of engineers/ engineering/ technology is largely misinformed Resulting in early decisions that block the path of children to Engineering

Percentage of Science Degrees Awarded Science degrees include life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, engineering, manufacturing, and building Source: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development

BS Degrees Awarded (US) Retirements of engineers will increase dramatically over the next 20 years, impacting our national competitiveness and our national capacity to perform. This alone creates a national imperative. Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

Pre-university activities in IEEE

IEEE’s Pre-University Initiative 2005-2006 New Initiative “Launching Our Children’s Path to Engineering” Objectives Increase the propensity of young people worldwide to select Engineering as a career path Build a sustained public awareness program, led by IEEE, with broad support of corporations and professional associations

Objective 1: Engineering in the pre-university classroom Institutionalization of IEEE Teacher In Service Program IEEE Section engineers develop and present technology-oriented projects to local pre-university educators Emphasis on volunteer-teacher interaction as opposed to volunteer-student interaction Ideally: a sustained program involving several thousand schools every year

Objective 2: Engineering Associations, Unite! Center for Pre-University Engineering Education Ideally, the resource of choice for pre-university cooperation with Engineering Associations Ideally, a multi-association organization With partners such as ASCE, ASME, IEE, SEE It is about ENGINEERING, not Electrical Engineering

Objective 3: Strong On-line presence New on-line portals for students, teachers, school counselors, and parents Educational and entertaining Focused on the audience From lesson plans for teachers to games for children Ideally, the premier on-line resource on engineering for pre-university students

Tryengineering.org “Strong On-line presence” On Line Portal Tryengineering.org “Strong On-line presence”

The Web provides us with high potential for reachability A successful portal can become a major resource for students, parents, school counselors, and teachers But success is difficult in an ever-crowded medium Effort needs to be coupled with more modern tools Instant messaging, podcasts

What information is needed on line? We met with school counselors and Engineering Associations Need on line tools for identifying formal and informal engineering education opportunities Engineering associations that participated in our discussions ACM, AIChE, AIAA, ASME, ASCE, IEE, JETS, SAE, SEE, Sloane Career Cornerstone Center

What information is available on line? We conducted a comprehensive review of engineering education resources By EAB and consultants Conclusions: Many “Engineering Resources” are actually focusing on Science and Mathematics Resources for teachers are largely inadequate Wrong message is sent about the nature of engineering and the life of engineers

From Collegeboard.com: Law It helps to be… Are you ready to… fascinated by the relationship between law and society engage in intense discussion of thorny legal problems ?

From Collegeboard.com: Broadcast Journalism It helps to be… Are you ready to… sharp of mind and quick of tongue learn how to find and interview sources?

From Collegeboard.com: Civil Engineering It helps to be… Are you ready to… A problem-solver who’s creative, curious, logical, and a fan of math. Spend hours and hours working on problem sets and design projects?

From Collegeboard.com: Civil Engineering It helps to be… Are you ready to… A problem-solver who’s creative, curious, logical, and a fan of math. Spend hours and hours working on problem sets and design projects?

From Collegeboard.com: Mechanical Engineering It helps to be… Are you ready to… A fan of science and math, a creative problem solver, and someone who likes to take things apart to find out how they work. Rely on your math skills? Master difficult scientific concepts? Take on a heavy course load? Spend five years as an undergrad…

From Collegeboard.com: Electrical Engineering It helps to be… Are you ready to… A fan of science and math who’s curious about the way things work Spend hours building detailed, complicated systems Try, try, and try again when at first a project doesn’t succeed

Good existing model Tryscience.org Partnership between “Your gateway to experience the excitement of contemporary science and technology through on and offline interactivity with science and technology centers worldwide.” Science is exciting, and it's for everyone! Partnership between IBM the New York Hall of Science the Association of Science-Technology Centers Science centers worldwide

Next step – tryengineering.org Companion site to tryscience.org Comprehensive Ultimate Audience: young people ages 9-18 Designed to convey excitement about engineering and design Can-do attitude Hands-on experience Positive image of the engineering process and engineering “Discover the creative engineer in you”

www.TryEngineering.org IEEE’s pre-university education portal For students, parents, teachers and school counselors A joint project of IEEE, IBM, and the New York Hall of Science Non-IEEE investment of approximately $1.5M US/Canada version was launched on June 2006 Seven versions in other languages have since been launched Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Russian

Tryengineering.org A portal for students, parents, school counselors and teachers University search By location, program, environment Day in the life of an engineer Hands-on and virtual projects Class plans for teaching engineering design Ask an engineer Ask a student Games Summer camps, internship opportunities

Countries of Users: English Version India (5%) China (3.3%) Canada United Kingdom Austria Australia Malaysia Germany Japan Thailand South Africa Korea Brazil

Most Requested Files: Lesson Plans Build a robot arm Cracking the Code (bar codes) Critical Load (Civil Engineering)

Languages 中文 Chinese Deutsch German Español Spanish Français French 邦人 Japanese Português Portuguese русский Russian

TryEngineering.org Non-English sites Monthly Averages Language Page Hits* Visitors* Spanish 25890 4553 Russian 22188 2930 Japanese 21040 2666 German 20848 2593 French 20379 2746 Chinese 14611 2643 *Monthly average for period 1 June – 31 March 08

TryEngineering Key Statistics As of August 2008 2.5 MILLION HITS IN 2007 … 2.8 MILLION HITS IN JAN-AUG ‘08 Average # of visitors per month: 40,562 Highest number of total unique visitors: 67,006 (May 08) Average # of page hits per month: 214,558 Average number of university searches per month: 8,362 Questions submitted to Ask an Expert: 3572

The Teacher in Service Program “Engineering in the classroom”

The Teacher In Service Program (TISP) A program that trains IEEE volunteers to work with pre-university teachers Based on approved Lesson Plans Prepared by IEEE volunteers Tested in classrooms Associated with Education Standards Designed to highlight engineering design principles The cost is less than $100 for a class of 30

Inception February 2001 IEEE Florida West Coast Section In conjunction with the University of South Florida College of Engineering

How does it work? Volunteers of an IEEE Section organize a TISP training event EAB provides logistical support and instructors Volunteers gather for a day and a half of training With teachers and school administrators Volunteers spread the program in their school districts

2006-2007 Boston Indianapolis Kuala Lumpur Cape Town Lima, Peru Rio de Janeiro Baltimore Dallas

2008 Los Angeles San Francisco Cordoba (Argentina) Port of Spain

Teacher In-Service Program Presentations To date, over 70 TISP presentations have been conducted by IEEE volunteers TISP presentations have reached over 1600 pre-university educators This reach represents more than 180,000 students

TISP presentations by volunteers Survey Results 1124 teachers/respondents

TISP presentations by volunteers Survey Results 1124 teachers/respondents

Basics IEEE Section engineers develop and present technology-oriented projects to local pre-university educators  Lesson plans in English and Spanish for teachers and engineers

Basics (2) Lesson plans matched to educational standards The program is focused at the primary (6-14) and secondary (15-18) school systems

Activity Sample http://www.ieee.org/web/education/preuniversity/tispt/lessons.html http://www.ieee.org/web/education/preuniversity/tispt/slessons.html

Build working models with household items

Design and Build a Better Candy Bag Lesson Focus Demonstrate how product design differences can affect the success of a final product in this case a bag for holding candy. Students work in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a better candy bag

What do we want to achieve in Port of Spain ? Create a sustainable pre-university engineering education program TISP program Participation in TryEngineering.org Reach 150 pre-university teachers in one year All over the country 300 teachers in the next two years Make TryEngineering a popular resource among teachers and students in the pre-university and university communities in Trinidad and Tobago

Questions and comments e.tzanakou@ieee.org etzanako@rci.rutgers.edu