“High Schools Improving Lives with Engineering Projects in Community Service-Learning” Serve Explore Prepare Design Succeed Grow Pamela Turner EPICS National High School Program Coordinator Purdue University

An Introduction to EPICS High

Outline  Motivation and Partnerships  Background  Projects in four areas Human services Access & abilities Education & outreach The environment  The EPICS Model  Impact/Meeting needs  Status

Motivation: Connecting engineering with people and local communities  While interest in engineering is declining, civic engagement among teenagers is near historic highs  83% of high school seniors participated in community service or service-learning Female and minority students more inclined to continue service Many honors diplomas require service  Service-learning in high schools rarely connected with engineering/science/math  EPICS provides an opportunity to tap into this wave of volunteerism

Giving high school students an opportunity to experience engineering through design helping their community, design-based, hands-on, ethics, teaming, communication, leadership Community-service and education organizations need access to technical expertise that is normally prohibitively expensive: improved, enhanced, and new services Motivation: Connecting Community and Engineering in High Schools

Motivation: The Time is Now for EPICS High EPICS received a $1.5 million from CNCS (Learn & Serve America) to kick-off the EPICS High school program Collaboration with EPICS, Engineering Education/Inspire, and Purdue’s College of Education  Hire in full-time high school coordinator  Opportunities for collaboration 4 EPICS university partners helped identify ~20 high schools Industry partners including; Intel, Motorola, National Instruments and Rolls Royce Pilot high schools have been identified

The EPICS High School Consortium Some EPICS High Schools are now in the process of finalizing Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) to Purdue. The following is a list of high schools who have completed or are in the process of completing the MOU. In Indiana: McCutcheon HS Jefferson HS IPS Career & Tech Center Perry Meridian HS Columbus C4 Program Bedford North Lawrence HS In Massachusetts: Leicester HS Agawam HS Prospect Hill Academy In San Diego: High Tech High Pacific Ridge In New York: Columbia HS for Math, Science & Engineering IDEA Mott Hall Bread & Roses Thurgood Frederick Douglas In San Jose: Andrew P. Hill HS Yerba Buena HS

Key Partnerships High School University Community Corporate

Partnerships: EPICS Universities Joining High School Program University of California, San Diego San Jose State University Columbia University Worcester Polytechnic Institute National model: Local universities support their local high schools

Partnerships: Corporate Interest  Leveraging efforts in outreach and community Improving Education Increasing interest in engineering/computing Helping Communities  Financial and in-kind resources for local projects Sustainability  Expertise Consultants for students and teachers  Advocates for Service-Learning

EPICS Projects: 4 Areas of Interest The EnvironmentAccess & Abilities Education & OutreachHuman Services

Partnerships: Examples of Types of Community Partners in Areas of Interest  Education: K-12 schools, museums, adult learning programs, after-school programs  Access and abilities: adaptive services, clinics for children with disabilities, programs for adults with disabilities, assistive technology  Human services: Homelessness prevention, Habitat for Humanity, family and children agencies, neighborhood revitalization, local government  Environment: environmental organizations, neighborhood associations, parks & recreation

Background: The EPICS Consortium  EPICS programs at 18 universities + 20 High School Purdue, Notre Dame, Wisconsin-Madison, Georgia Tech, Penn State, Butler, Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, Columbia, WPI, San Jose State, California-San Diego, California-Merced, Illinois Institute of Technology, Dayton, Dartmouth, Auckland, New Zealand, Virginia, Princeton High School Program – 20 High Schools in 2007  National support from NSF, CNCS, Microsoft, HP, National Instruments, Cypress, Motorola, Purdue  Annual conference May 20-22, 2008 in West Lafayette, IN. Regional workshops  National-scale EPICS projects Teams at different universities cooperate on national-scale problems

Many standards can be achieved through EPICS. One strength of the highly successful EPICS model is that it offers service-learning for students with varying academic interests. EPICS addresses critical areas in academic standards in:  Math ex: Problem-solving and utilizing math skills  Science ex: Using scientific theories in practical applications  Language Arts ex: Master good communication in order to both receive and disseminate information and understand others Background: Meeting Academic Standards

Background: Learning Pedagogies  Service-Learning Engagement in the community  Service to an underserved populations  EPICS focuses on local communities Tied to academic learning outcomes  Local partnerships allow students to experience consistent “customer” interaction Reciprocity  Solving problems WITH the community Reflection (Analysis)  Processing their experience in the community  Connecting the service to academic standards

EPICS Projects: Human Services (Examples of Projects at the University Level)  Habitat for Humanity Web-based home selection guides Building construction tutorials and management systems Energy efficiency analyses and home design recommendations Restore inventory management system  National Projects National Database system for homeowner assessments  Purdue and Notre Dame Construction training materials  Purdue and Wisconsin

 Waiheke Island Waste Resource Trust, New Zealand Processing waste glass into sand for use in construction materials Conversion of waste cooking oil to bio-diesel fuel EPICS Projects: Environment (Examples of projects at the University level)

EPICS Projects: Access & Abilities (Examples of projects at the university & high school level)  High School Team Bedford North Lawrence, IN Swallowing monitor to enable classmate with cerebral palsy control drooling 2nd place in 2005 EPICS I2P Provisional patent  Complex play environments for young children with physical disabilities  Multimedia systems to stimulate speech in developmentally delayed children

EPICS Projects: Education & Outreach (Examples of projects at the university level)  Projects with local museums: Virtual reality history tour Electromechanical battlefield Interactive zoo animal catalog, tour, and games Hands-on science exhibits Museum climate monitoring system  Partnerships with local K- 12 schools  K-12 outreach projects  Technology & girls  Technology-assisted job training

Bedford North Lawrence: Pilot EPICS High School Model  Started in Bedford, IN. by EPICS Alum employed at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center  Created a swallowing monitor to enable classmate with cerebral palsy to control drooling 2nd place in 2005 EPICS I2P competing against university teams Now have a provisional patent  Proved that EPICS can make an impact at the high school level on the students and the community

Bedford North Lawrence: Pilot EPICS High School Model Sample Student Quotes:  “EPICS confused me. I wasn’t thinking of engineering at all but wanted to do the project. After I got into it I found electrical engineering fun. Now I am considering engineering and less sure what I want to major in as an undergraduate” - Female participant wanting to major in pre-med  “This engineering had kind of a “girl feel” to it” - One of the four male participants last year

EPICS High School Model: Criteria of New EPICS High School Sites  Student Participants Broad participation: EPICS schools are expected to draw from a diverse population of students. Multidisciplinary collaboration: EPICS design teams need students with diverse expertise and career interests.  Willingness and ability of the institution to meet the EPICS core values. EPICS students participate in long-term, team-based design projects that solve technology-based problems in the community. EPICS programs establish multi-year partnerships with not-for-profit community organizations. EPICS community partners assist the student teams in understanding community needs and context for the designs.

EPICS High School Model: Criteria of New EPICS High School Sites (Cont.)  Institutional Commitment Institutional commitment and administrative support. Appropriate teacher and administrative leadership. Support systems to assist in the community contacts.  Sustaining and institutionalizing high school programs Purdue University along with their partnering Universities and corporate partners will work with the schools to prepare to sustain their programs.

High School EPICS Model: Structure High schools are determining the best fit for their schools and their students when deciding on the EPICS model they will offer. The following are examples of models that have come out in discussions with the schools.  After school or Saturday Program  In Daily Class Schedule (Elective)  3-Day/Week Class  EPICS as Part of an Existing Class The goal is to move toward integrating EPICS into the core curriculum

The High School EPICS Model: Curriculum Pieces EPICS programs will involve the following components modeled after the success at the university. Milestones must be achieved and students will be required to report on projects in written reflections and oral presentations.  Team meetings or “Labs”  Additional learning experiences (e.g. Lectures, workshops, web-based learning,…)  Readings  Reflections

The EPICS Model EPICS Curriculum Provides Service- Learning Design Education Project Management Community Partnerships Disciplinary Knowledge from Departments EPICS Programs Projects and Problems from Local Community Institutional Curriculum and Culture

Design Process Math The EPICS Model: Learning Design  Design is messy Involving people with varying skill sets and academic interests  The Design Process as a full cycle Traditional classes are valuable to the learning cycle of EPICS  EPICS provides an opportunity for start-to-finish design Problem definition Design for x-ability Working designs for fielded projects Support for fielded projects Redesign or retirement of fielded projects Social Studies Environment Language Arts Science Vocational Civics Health

Impact: Real Design Solutions to Real Community Needs  Real projects: start-to-finish design – problem definition, specifications, version control, sustainability, design/coding standards, rigorous testing, reliability, maintainability, safety, satisfying a customer, accountability, pride  A different view of engineering  The high school as citizen making an impact on the world around them

Impact: Meetings Students’ Needs  Communication Skills  Teamwork  Project integration and management  Entrepreneurship  Creative Thinking  Planning  Leadership  Professionalism  Career Exploration  Community Involvement and Awareness A genuine define-design-build- test-deploy-support experience

Impact: Underrepresentation  Research on science education suggests that “context” is important to young women students.  “Image” is increasingly being cited as a deterrent to attracting women.  The ability of EPICS to pull young women interested in the projects and bettering their communities is very valuable. BNL Program in /13 participants were women Service-learning draws a higher percentage of women from engineering and computing in university programs  Research indicates a similar potential with underrepresented minority students

Impact: Evaluation and Assessment  Data on various program aspects will be reported regularly by each of the participating high schools to form individual and collective assessments. Interest in engineering Learning of design Engagement with the community  Evaluation of the summer trainings will be done to consistently make improvements.  Information gathered will reflect the impact of the program on the fields of engineering in the numbers of students attracted to engineering, including the underrepresented populations.

Team Roles: Student leadership  Project leaders - lead individual projects  Liaison - primary contact for the community partner  Financial officer - manages team’s budget  Manager of Intellectual Property - leads entrepreneurship activities, patent searches  Webmaster

Artifacts: Data to Assess  Students produce artifacts that can be assessed during their EPICS experience Design Notebooks Reflections Self-assessments Presentations Reports  Project documentation Delivered projects  Manuals or other documentations with project

Assessing Team & Individual Work  Teams are assessed Project plan Customer/Partner feedback Presentations and team reports  Individual artifacts assessed Peer assessments Summary of accomplishments Individual Notebooks Reflections Design records - authored Observations

EPICS High: Next Steps  Schools have submitted Memorandums of Understanding (MOU)  Sub-grant Dollars Dispersed upon Review of MOU.  All Schools were to Complete 1 Project-Based, Service-Learning Activity by the End of the School Year.  One-week 2007 Training Workshops to be Held at Purdue the weeks of June 11 th and July 9 th for Participating Teachers and Administrators from each school.  Roll-out in the fall of 2007

The Time is Now! Prepare Explore Serve