This Arizona State Young Scholars project is designed to give approximately thirty selected high ability and high potential secondary school students an unusual learning experience in engineering. An annual summer residential course will focus on participant skill development in logic, creativity, analysis, and communication. A series of state-of-the-art drawing laboratories will offer students experience in creative expression through freehand, and computer-aided drawing. Participants will also practive artifact design and analysis in computer analysis laboratories using electronic spreadsheets. Interesting design problems will be assigned, both for seminar discussion and investigation. Lectures, workshops and seminars will examine pertinent topics such as the role of mathematics and science in engineering, the philosophy, professional responsibilities and ethics of engineering, modern challenges facing engineers, and the connection between engineering and the "liberal arts". Field trips will show students selected engineering research and manufacturing establishments, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Staffing levels for the course will allow substantive one-on-one interaction between staff and students. Project staff will represent a cross-section of the engineering community, will be required to have a record of skillful teaching, successful interaction with young persons, and provide potential mentors for the student participants. Follow-up activities will maintain contact with the scholars, and the impact of the program on their career choice will be determined.
