This exploratory project will provide effective mechanisms to motivate and engage middle school students in the practice of engineering through hands-on community-based service learning projects by establishing sustainable linkages between higher education, K-12, and community partners, developing professional learning communities (PLCs) comprised of engineering faculty and K-12 educators, and creating appropriately aligned educational pathways that integrates STEM with social studies and language arts. The university- school district- community partnership is at the heart of the proposed project. The proposed ?Partnership, Pathway and Pipeline for Engineering Education: Engaging Middle School Students with Curricular Integration and Societal Relevance? will be led by the Dean of Engineering at ASU and the superintendent of CUSD. The project will leverage and scale the resources of both ASU and CUSD and allow project outcomes to be incorporated into the strategic plans and organizational missions of both institutions. Central to this project is the identification of engineering service learning projects that facilitate integrated learning of science, math, social studies and language arts. These STEM-based integrated activities are designed to engage students and captivate their interest while promoting problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills by addressing a real world needs in their local communities.
The overall goal of this project is to increase the awareness, motivation and self-perception of Arizona students in their formative middle school years to engineering opportunities and educational pathways that lead to successful engineering careers. In doing so, the State of Arizona will have in place a more socially-embedded comprehensive and effective educational pipeline that will provide the needed Arizona engineering workforce to compete in a global competitive high technology economy. This project will result in a sustainable partnership across institutions and communities to improve and diversify the K-12 pipeline into engineering and technology.
