Most children enter the world curious and imaginative, seemingly hard-wired to explore and influence their environment. Yet by the time they reach their teens, many in the United States appear to have lost their zest for making discoveries and testing their mettle -- particularly in science, technology, engineering and math, and especially if they are female or members of minority groups.

EPICS High School Students Help Community with Engineering Design Projects

As social scientists analyze this troubling trend, the University of Arizona is working to reverse it. For the last six years, the UA College of Engineering has offered Engineering 102 (ENGR 102 HS), an adapted version of its required introductory college course, to high school students.

The American Society for Engineering Education, or ASEE, has recognized the UA for this program with the 2014 Best Practices in K-12 and University Partnerships Award. A team from the UA College of Engineering will receive the award at the ASEE’s annual conference June 14-18 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

College-Level Classes at High School

High school teachers teach the course over an academic year rather than one semester. Students -- mostly seniors -- who complete the introductory course at their high school receive three units of college credit toward a UA engineering degree.

“It’s really valuable for our students to get a taste of the different areas of engineering in a familiar, comfortable setting,” said Ben Davis, who has taught at several Arizona schools and on the Hopi and Navajo reservations and now teaches at Sahuaro High in Tucson, Arizona.

“Activities that might seem dry or overwhelming can become enjoyable and second nature. After finishing a complicated coding project in Microsoft Excel, my students can sit back and say, ‘You know what? I can do this!’”

Students design, build, analyze and test a solar oven as their core project for the year. They also work on projects that cover wide-ranging fields of engineering and the sciences and require diverse skill sets. These projects have included solar go-karts and cellphone chargers, duct tape canoes and balsa wood bridges, computer games and software applications, Lego robotics and plastic foam airplanes, and prosthetic hands and artificial heart valves, to name a few.

Students learn that engineering affects many aspects of life and can give meaning to their own lives, whatever their circumstances and interests. They learn they can use their math and science skills to solve societal problems.

“Many high school students have no exposure to the engineering profession in their families or social circles,” said the UA’s Jill Rogers, ENGR 102 HS program coordinator. “They may be daunted by the academic challenges of a university engineering degree and unaware of the opportunities such a degree could provide. They don’t think they have what it takes to succeed in engineering. We think a positive engineering experience with excellent instructors in a familiar environment can change that.”

Above Average Diversity

ENGR 102 HS is the brainchild of UA College of Engineering Dean Jeff Goldberg and Fred DePrez, principal of Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, where the program started in 2008 with 21 students. Since then, it has enrolled more than 1,000 students from 28 high schools in Arizona and one school in California.

Some 300 students now take the course for college credit, and another 100 students take the course for high school credit only. About 23 percent of the students are female, higher than the national average of 18.8 percent enrolled in university engineering programs, according to a study reported by ASEE.

Thanks to significant partner support, the University can offer the course to high school students at a deeply discounted rate. Among major funders are the Science Foundation Arizona, which has provided $500,000, the Salt River Project, which has given $100,000, and Intel, which provided seed money for the project and more than $125,000 over the last five years. Other funders include Texas Instruments, John Deere and Raytheon.

In addition to generous benefactors, “strong instructors, supported by UA College of Engineering through mechanisms such as workshops and training, have been key to the program’s success,” said Jim Baygents, associate dean for academic affairs in the UA College of Engineering.

Students Rise to the Challenge

Instructors from Tucson area schools include University High School’s Mike Schmidt, who received the 2013 Southern Arizona Engineering Educator of the Year Award from the local chapter of the Society of Professional Engineers, and Palo Verde High Magnet School’s AnnMarie Condes, who received the same award in 2014.

The general consensus among instructors is that Engineering 102 high school students are exceeding expectations.

“The most surprising thing has been how much the students rise to the level of excellence that has been set for them,” said Schmidt.

“They want to be engineers and attend the UA, and they see this as a wonderful opportunity. They come to each project and take it above and beyond anything I would expect,” echoed Condes.

Solar Oven Throw Down Slide Show

For some students, a highlight is touring the UA College of Engineering facilities and labs.

“They were polishing the mirrors during our tour, and they set up a station for us so we could watch,” said Palo Verde junior Emilio Martinez, who had never been on the UA campus before visiting the UA’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab.

For many teachers, the highlight is attending a five-day summer teacher training workshops run by the UA College of Engineering at a local resort. At these intensive but informal gatherings, teachers work on projects for possible use in their own class and share course materials.

“I’ve been to a lot of workshops in my 20 years of teaching, and let me tell you -- this is a good one.” Condes said. “I love brainstorming with teachers from all over Arizona, and even California, and getting to experience what they are doing in their courses.”

The teachers’ enthusiasm for the course is not lost on their ENGR 102 HS students. Perhaps the clearest indication is that most students don’t want it to end.

“In this class, I’ve discovered I love mechanical engineering—especially making robots and clocks,” said Palo Verde senior Isaiah Dodds. “If I didn’t have such a long bus ride home, I’d still be here, working on the projects, long after school lets out.”

EPICS Slide Show