Academic Industrial Teachers Internship Program focuses on the premise that if teachers know and understand they will do a better job of directing students into the courses required to succeed in an engineering program. For each of two summers, twenty-four high school teachers from minority schools nationwide will come to the University of Wisconsin for a two week workshop learning about engineering disciplines, engineering opportunities, and the correlation between engineering concepts and classroom instruction in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. A six week internship will allow the participants to work side by side with engineers, technicians, and computer specialists. This project offers the opportunity to specifically address several items of significance. Namely, the concern for increasing minority participation in the fields of engineering. The collaborative effort between industry and higher education; the need to better prepare teachers to counsel students into the proper mathematics, chemistry and physics courses; and to achieve a balance between the theoretical and the practical. This project can serve as a model of a kind of enrichment program for enhancing minority participation in science, mathematics, and engineering.
