Marketing Engineering and Applied Science Careers (MKTC) Subcommittee

Notes from the Meeting April 12, 2006

Committee Chair: Di Saunders.

Agenda : Distributed via Email. Posted 9:15 pm April 11, 2006.

Agenda for the meeting of April 12, 2006- #2

12:30 - 1:00	Discussion with Skip Rochefort, Assoc. Professor, Chemical Engineering at OSU; Skip will provide his advice on reaching high school and middle school students with pre-engineering materials (he has a class at 1:00pm so we'll start right at 12:30 with him), and we'll have a chance for a short discussion with him. Link to questions sent to Skip
1:00 - 1:30	Discussion with Eda Davis-Butts, chair of the OPAS Diversity Sub-committee and Director of the SMILE program at OSU, on issues around diversity and inclusion as we work to develop outreach materials. Link to questions sent to Eda
1:30 -	Finalize mission statement for OPAS Marketing Subcommittee: To increase the number of Oregonians in K-14 aware of and interested in pursuing engineering and/or applied science as a career, and gaining the educational background and skills they need to successfully do so.
	Finalize recommendations for OPAS Marketing Subcommittee:  The overarching goal is to assure that every student in high school or middle school has been exposed to engineering and has the resources available to make an informed choice about STEM educational opportunities.  The group identified three priority strategies: Create a multi-tiered program to build awareness of opportunities and career options Leverage and/or replicate existing models and best practices, and Enhance state/industry/education/association partnerships.
	Discuss audience prioritization    ____High school students    ____Middle school students    ____High school teachers/administrators    ____Middle school teachers/administrators    ____Elementary school students    ____High school students who are under-represented in engineering/App. Sci.    ____Middle school students who are under-represented in engineering/App. Sci.    ____High school graduates not yet in college    ____Young women starting or returning to college    ____Compressed work week adults
- 1:55	Initial discussion on our "products" and prioritization. Where should this subcommittee begin in terms of outreach materials to targeted student populations and other populations we discussed at the first meeting (e.g., teachers). Should we follow the Computer Science Task Force Model and do an initial awareness piece to high school/middle school students? Should we target the most under-represented populations? Other population?
1:55 - 2:00	Next meeting topics and date

Questions sent to Skip Rochefort prior to the meeting:

• What are some of the barriers for high school and middle school students in entering engineering and applied sciences programs at universities?
• Who would be included in the most under-represented populations going into engineering/applied sciences fields, such as women, students of color, students from rural areas, lower-income students, etc.?
• What types of information or activities have you seen make real connections for middle/high school students in sparking a greater interest in engineering/applied sciences?
• If we produced a publication for high school students, what area do you think would be most important to cover:
  • (1) how to prepare in high school in order to study engineering in college, what campuses in Oregon offer what degree options, and types of careers engineering grads can go into (similar to the GET REAL brochure-poster);
  • (2) What is engineering, what makes it interesting; what are the different types of engineers out there and what do they do;
  • (3) Pre-packaged curriculum for math/science teachers on engineering that they can incorporate into some lessons
  • (4) Other?
• If we have limited resources, should we direct attention to teachers/adminstrators or directly to students/parents? Should we focus on high school or middle school students?

Questions sent to Eda Davis-Butts prior to the meeting:

• What are some of the barriers for high school and middle school students of color to entering engineering and applied sciences programs at universities?
• Often we lump all students of color and other under-represented groups together as though they all face the same issues/barriers. Can you talk a bit about different groups of students and some unique challenges they face?
• What types of information or activities have you seen make real connections for middle/high school students in sparking a greater interest in going to college?
• If we produce a publication that provides information on preparing for college (specifically pre-engineering and applied sciences), exploring degree offerings at colleges, and they types of jobs available to graduates in these areas, do you think we should consider:
  • (1) a specific section in the piece which addresses the unique challenges of under-represented students; or
  • (2) have a separate publication just for under-represented populations?? Or some other variation??

Notes: posted July 14 , 2006 - Jo - download the pdf

OPAS Marketing Sub-committee
Notes from April 12, 2006 Meeting

Skip Rochefort, Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Director of pre-college programs in engineering at OSU

• Persistence is the best way to provide pre-engineering and other STEM curriculum to students in middle and high school. One-time “hits” don’t work
• High school is late to get pre-engineering curriculum to students; if we waited until a student was in high school to begin teaching music, we’d think something was wrong; but this is what we tend to do with STEM.
• What we need is a program on tv called “CSI Engineering” that would engage young people in this field; there are now lots of students who say they want to be forensic scientist even thought they don’t have a thorough understanding of what it is exactly.
• He does not think that the GET REAL brochure-poster will really get read. We need to reach students at the technology level where they are at, such as Pod-casting information to them.
• OSU College of Engineering has an e-newsletter called Momentum at http://engr.oregonstate.edu/momentum/
• Data shows that we lose students in the 5th and 6th grades (ages 10-11) when it comes to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) ; so you have to engage them before this.
• Live presentations are better than other vehicles, but they take people. If we can “train the trainer” meaning train teachers in delivering pre-engineering curriculum, then we could reach many more students than by using external speakers. Even if teachers just said the word “engineering” to students at different points in K-12 it would be a plus.
• Although places like Canby Technology Center’s beautiful facilities are available, 98% of the users are boys, and the facilities don’t get used that much – a perception that it is “just for techies” and the residual effects of the academic/vocational-technical divide mediate against it, as does the fact that the academic college-prep kids are busy elsewhere with AP, IB etc.  Skip is no longer focusing on the technology track.
• You can’t just put material out there and expect people to use it.
• A lot of people are not focused on a 4-year degree; they may want to be a machinist, for example.
• There is a materials science class at a high school in Corvallis, but none of the engineering students now at OSU who had gone to this high school had ever taken it. Working with technology classes in high schools is not working because there is the perception that only the “flunkies” take the technology classes.
• We need to talk with the following people and get buy-in on STEM curriculum: AP teachers, middle school teachers. Give teachers a week off and train them, and get professors to come into their classes and work with students; then they will be more receptive. We need to do “enabling stuff”. 
• Reward teachers: hard cash, college credits, follow-up.
• Change the requirements pie.  Can’t keep adding on – the resources of instructional time, energy, money are all limited.
• Just pre-packaging curriculum doesn’t work because there is the fear factor (eg, teachers feeling that they really don’t know the material).
• Students are enamored by technology, such as Podcasts. MySpace is also widely used by students; get an engineer on MySpace talking about it. Print just doesn’t work
• Focus on teachers and get information to them as a conduit. Teachers in middle school hit the highest numbers of students. In high school you just get the kids who are taking chemistry classes.
• Teacher training can work, but must provide teachers with an incentive/reward, such as credits or stipends. We have to work with the structure and the teachers we have, and “infiltrate” that. And need to follow up with teachers regularly; could use graduate students to help with this.
• Add “engineer” to elementary students “Word of the Day” to get them familiar with what engineers do (not just driving trains!).  “Infiltrate the existing structure with propaganda.” The word “engineer” needs the same name recognition as doctor, lawyer, firefighter, etc.
• Adults also need to better understand what engineers do.
• Some high schools have noon-time TV shows produced internally; this could be a conduit. The American Inventor TV show could help students understand what engineers do.

Eda Davis Butts, Director, Oregon SMILE, OSU

• Eda noted that there are 4 key barriers to getting students of color and women into STEM, and these weight differently for different populations; for example, attitudes that young women have about math and science impact their taking those courses.
  • Attitudes about their science and math ability, the usefulness of math and science to their lives, and the perceptions that significant adults have of their abilities
  • Academic achievement
  • In-class and out-of-school learning opportunities available to them
  • Role models and mentors
• For girls, attitudes about their abilities dive before their test results dive.
• For Latino youth, the parents’ perceptions about science and math can impact their children’s involvement in it. Successful programs also engage the parents, so they can see these careers as real options for their children. The Puente program at the University of California is a good model (See http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/academicprep_report04-05.pdf for a report on results of their outreach programs.)
• An “endangered group” are African-American young males, both in terms of graduating from high school and pursuing STEM career paths.
• Family knowledge around college-going impacts STEM involvement, as do community assets, availability of resources (especially in rural and inner-urban areas), and peer support.
• The K-12 system plays a negative role at times; minority students are mostly in segregated institutions.
• Quality of career counseling has an impact: are there expectations around students’ capacity to learn STEM?
• Trust building is important with Native Americans; need trust of tribal elders; have to have inclusions and involvement of tribal knowledge and science; ensuring that you are not taking students away from their cultural heritage.
• There’s a lot of good materials out there on STEM; is probably a matter of compiling materials versus producing new ones.
• Researcj suggests we should start interesting students in STEM no later than the 7th grade; and should even start earlier, especially for young women, such as in 4th or 5th grade.
• It’s important to build a cohort of kids planning to go to college.
• She supports working through the teachers as they interact with students on a daily basis. We need to help them be prepared around STEM and have the students interact as often as possible with undergraduate and graduate students, and professors, in the classroom, as well as bringing students to campuses.
• A combination of approaches is best, but Eda does not endorse spending more resources on new print campaigns.
• Dan Arnold: should outside resources be of the same “culture” or ethnic background? Eda: helping students to connect to adults is significant in changing their attitudes; having ethnic role models is helpful. For rural students it is very helpful to expand their experiences by giving them experiences out of their area as well. Mentoring is key. A significant adult who cares about the success of youth is key for all populations. This could be a retired adult, or anyone who can make a connection.
• Parents need to have opportunities to see their children engaged in math and science, and enjoying it. Clubs deliver evening activities so that parents can experience their children being active in these pursuits.
• Expand parents’ skills in a non-threatening way. A good model is the University of Arizona’s Math and Parent Partnership, which provides support to parents so they can support their children in STEM. They hold math workshops and parents and children work on math together (Family Math: http://math.arizona.edu/~dsl/k12t.htm). There are also community college classes for parents in math that are only $10-15 per credit.
• Parent leadership is critical. Build parent skills in supporting STEM for their children, and for advocacy

Group Discussion

• A clear, simple definition of engineering and applied science is needed, as it is hard to get across what these fields do; include software engineers too.  (Dan Arnold has volunteered to do this.)
• Dan: we have a disconnect with the definition of STEM; we need to include and track that.
• There is no common understanding of the term “technology”.Dowe mean the use of computers as tools in the classroom?  The tools, processes, and knowledge society uses to create stuff to solve problems? Electronics?  VoTech/PTE classes?
• Should we even use the term applied science?
• Ed Dennis: pre-packaged curriculum can work, but curriculum is usually badly done, with no guides, and not aligned with standards. Students now will have a Personal Plan & Profile that they need to fulfill to graduate; counselors will help them do it between 9-11 grade. This is a step down from actually declaring a major. Reynolds High School students declare a major: this puts them in the driver’s seat and has resulted in more kids taking more challenging classes.
• Microsoft has developed the Professional Development Portal; this can communicate all over the state, and could be an early win in providing content to schools. There is a virtual school district in Oregon; there might be a leverage point here; first one in the country.
• There is stakeholder engagement process by the Superintendent, who has a high school group that acts as a focus group/advisory team.
• You have got to get to teachers; but they are overwhelmed.
• Joyce: what is ODE’s priority on workforce development? Ed – The standards review process is a way to influence this.
• Joyce: we need to talk to teachers in teacher training programs, before they get into the classroom.
• Need to bring in the OPAS sub-committee on curriculum.
• Joyce: we haven’t sold the idea of Engineering to the people who matter at ODE.  We are getting the vibe “yeah, yeah, everybody wants us to teach their curriculum” – we need to leverage Workforce Development, OBC, and ETIC to apply influence to ODE.
• We have never measured the applied piece – we need to teach, and therefore assess, the concept of the designed world.  Joyce:  can we pull the best practices that say pull the lesson into the applied world?  Even if there is no money for separate assessment?
• Endi: we need to get in where we can. See article by Larry Flick on how to incorporate Engineering in Science and Math (on OPAS committee web site).
• Joyce: Arts can be a link to Engineering at the Elementary School level. But we don’t want to cry for attention to the detriment of other areas like art and PE.
• OHSU AKA Science program very effective; assumes that all kids are scientists; is focused on biology; teachers get paid to teach it after school; has 3 subjects a year and is $55 per student for 8 weeks.
• We need to see who else is doing national “brand awareness” for engineering.  (Jo was able to forward to Di a couple of commercials advertising some engineering firms; these are not posted because of copyright issues.)
• Ed Dennis:  If the goal is to get engineering talked about like doctors, lawyers, farmers, etc. that can be done.  It’s a policy piece.
• The Marketing sub-committee agreed to bring in curriculum sub-committee leaders to discuss these issues further.
• Important additions to our list of audiences: Elementary School Teachers, Pre-Service Teachers.  The unprioritized list now reads:
• High School students
• Middle School students
• High School teachers/administrators
• Middle School teachers/administrators
• Elementary school teachers
• Elementary school students
• High School students who are under-represented in Engineering & Applied Science
• Middle School students who are under-represented in Engineering & Applied Science
• High School graduates not yet in college
• Young women starting or returning to college
• Compressed work week adults
• Pre-service teachers
• For questions or information regarding this webpage, please email Jo Oshiro or call (503) 725.2910.