1 The Teacher In-Service Program(TISP) November 7-8, 2008 San Francisco Litsa Micheli-Tzanakou IEEE Vice President, Educational Activities

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

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

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

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

6 IEEE Membership By Region 31 December 2007 Reflecting the global nature of IEEE, R8 and R10 are now the two largest IEEE Regions R9 – 15,410 R8 – 64,976 R10 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

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

8 What is the Problem? l Flat or declining engineering enrollments in most developed nations l Coupled with disappointing performance of youth in Mathematics l Insufficient number of engineers and engineering educational programs in most developing countries l Asia is far behind Europe and the US in number of engineers per capita

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

10 Pre-university activities in IEEE

11 IEEEs Pre-University Initiative l New Initiative l Launching Our Childrens Path to Engineering l Objectives l Increase the propensity of young people worldwide to select Engineering as a career path l Build a sustained public awareness program, led by IEEE, with broad support of corporations and professional associations

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

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

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

15 On Line Portal Tryengineering.org Strong On-line presence

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

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

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

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

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

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

22 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 engineerAsk a student GamesSummer camps, internship opportunities

23 Countries of Users: English Version l US (70%) l India (5%) l China (3.3%) l Canada l United Kingdom l Austria l Australia l Malaysia l Germany l Japan l Thailand l South Africa l Korea l Brazil

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

25 Languages Chinese DeutschGerman EspañolSpanish FrançaisFrench Japanese PortuguêsPortuguese русскийRussian

26 TryEngineering Key Statistics As of Sept 29, 2008 l 2.5 MILLION HITS IN 2007 … 3.3 MILLION HITS IN JAN-Sept 08 l Average # of visitors per month: 40,562 l Highest number of total unique visitors: 67,006 (May 08) l Average # of page hits per month: 214,558 l Average number of university searches per month: 8,362 l Questions submitted to Ask an Expert: 3572

27 TryEngineering.org Non-English sites Monthly Averages Language Page Hits*Visitors* Spanish Russian Japanese German French Chinese *Monthly average for period 1 June – 31 March 08

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30 The Teacher in Service Program (TISP) Engineering in the classroom

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

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

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

l Los Angeles l San Francisco l Cordoba (Argentina) l Port of Spain (Trinidad/Tobago)

35 Teacher In-Service Program Presentations l To date, over 75 TISP presentations have been conducted by IEEE volunteers l TISP presentations have reached over 1600 pre-university educators l This reach represents more than 180,000 students

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

37 Basics (2) l The program is focused at the primary (6-14) and secondary (15-18) school systems

38 Activity Sample ity/tispt/lessons.html ity/tispt/slessons.html

39 Build working models with household items

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

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

42 Questions and comments