OPAS is a collaboration of industry, non-profit, and public educators and leaders working to help achieve the Engineering and Technology Industry Council's goal of increasing the number and diversity of Oregon students pursuing engineering and similar fields at colleges and universities. OPAS develops and implements strategies that expand formal and informal educational opportunities in pre-engineering, computer science, and other applied sciences for students in middle and high school.
The OPAS strategy
- Focus resources on programs that give students experiences that give them deep insight into engineering and applied science thereby allowing them to assess their interest in these fields and make informed decisions.
- Invest in programs that include
- Systematic solution with integrated elements sufficient to produce desired outputs, outcomes and impact.
- Sustainable economic model that will allow the program to continue without OPAS funding after a start-up period.
- Scalable structure that supports successful implementation by increasing numbers of people or organizations without requiring extraordinary skills or circumstances
- Increase emphasis on computer science in response to the existing and growing demand for computer science and information technology professionals and to leverage the existing capacity of OUS computer science programs.
- Balance investments between in-class and out-of-school-time programs as well as selected marketing activities.
OPAS Accomplishments
Through the service of its members and allies, the Oregon Pre-engineering and Applied Science (OPAS) Initiative has contributed to:
OPAS Believes
- Engineering & Technology education benefits all students - application, context, and doing - promotes skills and retention.
- Engineering is not synonymous with science or math.
- Can't do engineering without science and math, although we often teach science & math without mentioning engineering, even when engineering content and methods are in play.
- We focus on raising the ceiling of student aspiration & achievement: more students, better prepared at the top end of the spectrum. Other groups are worrying about the floor, which is an important and more complex problem.
- Out-of-School-Time (OST) education offers things that formal education rarely can; both are more powerful when complementary.
- Students need an array of opportunities varying in duration, intensity and structure, to pursue their interests and personalize their learning; we must collaborate to increase capacity and access across the state and across socioeconomic lines.
- Teachers matter: pedagogy, relationships, content, and contact time and more.
- Diversity matters: gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, rural/urban.
Sub Strategies for the 2011 - 2013 Biennium
- In-Class strategy
- Increase availability of rigorous pre-engineering and computer science courses in Oregon middle and high schools with a focus on introductory courses that allow students to make informed decisions on pursuing these fields in high school and college.
- Enhance the implementation of Oregon’s K12 science standard that includes engineering design as a paradigm for learning science alongside scientific inquiry.
- Out-of-School-Time strategy
- Increase availability of high-quality team-based and project-based pre-engineering and computer science programs to students of all backgrounds throughout Oregon.
- Provide incentives for schools and teachers to offer high-quality programs outside of normal school time.
- Marketing strategy
- Communicate effectively with K12 students and those that influence them including parents, teachers and counselors.
- Provide useful information about
- engineering and applied science programs available in Oregon at both the college and pre-college level .
- engineering and applied science career paths.
How We Got Here
In September 2005, a strategic planning summit brought together leaders from throughout Oregon to share information and insights and craft a statewide strategy for enhancing pre-engineering and applied sciences education in Oregon. Shortly after the summit a report describing the summit and the recommendations developed by its delegates was issued. A follow-up workshop was held in November 2006, for which a report was issued in December giving the key conclusions of the workshop. In February 2009 a workshop was held to make the transition from high-level planning to creating business plans for the next biennium.
Page last updated Monday, December 5, 2011
