A series of Saturday engineering design seminars were developed for secondary school students and their parents and teachers. Occasionally, school administrators attended. Practicing engineers representative of African-American, Hispanic and white ethnicities presented the historical and technical engineering perspective for the various project designs (i.e., mousetrap cars, basswood bridges, and water-bottle rockets) and the local engineering college/university partner hosted the events on their campuses. The program participation for the years 2003-04 and 2005-05 is shown in Tables 3.7 and 3.8.
Table 3.7 Middle school student, teacher and parent participation in SECME programs, 2003-04 and 2004-05
Middle school student attendance by year 2003 – 2004 2004 - 2005
SECME Event Count Percentage Count Percentage Mousetrap car seminar 80/122 65% 139/163 85% Bridge design seminar 67/121 55% 103/122 84% Water-bottle rocket seminar 105/137 76% 114/129 88%
Olympiad competition 342/620 55%
Middle school teacher attendance by year 2003 – 2004 2004 - 2005
SECME Event Count Percentage Count Percentage Mousetrap car seminar 8/20 26% 23/28 82% Bridge design seminar 10/20 50% 12/16 75% Water-bottle rocket seminar 12/17 70% 14/20 70%
Olympiad competition
Middle school parent attendance by year 2003 – 2004 2004 - 2005
SECME Event Count Percentage Count Percentage Mousetrap car seminar 12/20 60% 10/11 90% Bridge design seminar 31/33 93% 31/39 79% Water-bottle rocket seminar 39/44 88% 60/62 96%
Olympiad competition 31/45 68%
The breakdown of middle school participation at SECME events by percentage of district total is represented in Table 3.8.
Table 3.8 Middle school representation at SECME events 2003-04 and 2004-05 Middle school attendance by year
2003 – 2004 2004 – 2005
SECME Event Count Percentage
of district
Count Percentage of district
Mousetrap car seminar 10/54 18% 15/54 25% Bridge design seminar 12/54 22% 14/54 25% Water-bottle rocket seminar 12/54 22% 10/54 18%
Olympiad competition 20/54 37% 17/54 31%
The format for each Saturday Engineering Design Seminar began with a celebration of participants attending the event on a Saturday and preparing for their future. Students, parents, teachers and community partners were recognised and applauded. The SECME “Yes!” concluded the introductions. A sample introduction as presented at the SECME Bridge Design Seminar:
Welcome to the SECME Bridge Seminar. You are congratulated for getting up early in the morning on a Saturday and taking charge of your future (applause). Special thanks to the teachers/coordinators for dedicating their time to working with students at school and for coming out on a Saturday (applause). We would also like to acknowledge the parents, without you, the students would not be here (applause). And special thanks to our hosts and the engineering students that will be presenting today and providing expert tips on building a winning bridge (applause). There’s a special way that we show our appreciation in SECME. Everybody stand up. Raise you right hand and wave it in the air and bring it down with a closed fist and yell YES! Take your left hand wave it in the air and bring it down with a closed fist and yell YES! Now take both hands and wave them in the air and bring them down with a closed fist and yell YES! One more time. YES! YES! YES!
This introduction and program outline were done similarly at the other Saturday Engineering Design Seminars, the teacher coordinator mini-conference, the student competitions, and the awards banquet. Schools were notified of these events by email and direct mailings through school mail (Appendix D).
District SECME Mini-Conference
A SECME coordinator and teacher conference was held at a local SECME partnering college at the beginning of the school year in the month of September, during the fall school term. All participating schools K – 12 were invited to send the SECME Coordinator and/or a SECME team teacher (Appendix E). The memorandum was sent directly to the principals of all schools inviting them to start or continue the program at their schools. A copy of the memorandum was also sent to individual teachers who had participated in SECME previously. The teacher professional development, mini-conference, concept was modeled after the national 12-day summer institute on a much smaller scale. The agenda (Appendix F) allowed for teachers to collaborate and share best practices for implementing a successful program. There was also opportunity in the day’s activities to provide support for each other. Engineers and/or experts presented the mathematics and science concepts addressed in each of the major SECME competition projects. Teachers designed and constructed working models of the same projects that their students would eventually complete. In this respect, the teachers worked through the same experiences that the students would encounter in their attempts at designing and constructing engineering projects.
Saturday seminars
In an effort to minimize classroom disruptions and avoid high-stakes testing time-frames for preparation and assessment administration, when teachers and students are not allowed to be taken out of the classroom, Saturday Engineering Design seminars occurred between the months of October and January. The intent of these seminars was to provide students, parents, and teachers with the opportunity to collaborate with each other and practicing engineers or engineering students on mathematics, science and engineering concepts. A description and sample schematic of each project can be found in Appendices G – I. Each project was addressed at a different seminar. There were three institutions of higher education (IHE) involved in hosting the Saturday seminars and providing engineering students as presenters or role-models. The presentation format began with an acknowledgement of the participants for their initiative to learn competitive tips that placed them ahead of their peers. The engineer would present the mathematics, engineering, and science concepts associated with designing and building either a mousetrap car, basswood
bridge, or a water-bottle rocket. The seminars allowed middle and high school students, teachers, parents, and experts to work together to provide the opportunity for students to begin the initial designs of their projects that would later be entered into competition. At the school-site teachers were expected to work with students on the completion of the designs, testing, redesigning, and retesting in order to enter the end-of-the-year competition. Parents were provided the knowledge also to provide support at home. The seminars not only allowed for a competitive advantage to students, but also reinforced mathematics and science concepts learned in the classroom through real-world, project-based applications.
Competition
The culminating event of the program was the Olympiad (Appendix J). The event hosted approximately 900 participants that included students, parents, teachers and community partners. Apart from actual competitors, there were spectators that included friends and family members. There were 10 STEM events available for the middle school student participants to compete against each other. Events were judged by engineers, professors, engineering students and other community partners.
The schools paraded into the auditorium to the Olympics theme carrying their competition banners. Students, parents, teachers and community partners were welcomed and the “Olympiad” games were opened. There were a series of closed competitions and spectator-allowed competitions. The events ran concurrently. While scores were tabulated, there was an on-site engineering challenge for parents and students. Winners of individual events were announced at the closing ceremonies. All participating schools were provided with individual participant certificates. Trophies for the schools placing first through third were presented at the annual breakfast awards banquet. (Appendix K).
Breakfast awards banquet
The awards banquet was held at a hotel in a banquet facility that accommodated 400 guests. Schools winning at least one event were allotted seven complimentary tickets and had the option of purchasing additional seats. In this way, there could be at least a one-member representative, and his/her parent, from each winning team, had a school placed first through third in several team events. Conversely, schools not
placing, received three complimentary tickets to be used by a teacher, student, parent combination as inspiration for the following year. Attendees were served a full- plated breakfast by waiters. A slide show presentation recapping the year’s events from design seminars to competition was shown and 24-inch trophies were presented to the individual event winners and overall champions for each region within the district. The banquet recognised elementary through high school competitors, teachers, parents, community partners (university/industry) and administrators. The banquet venue was an integral part of the program, when considering the targeted underserved student population who may not have had the exposure or means to enjoy such a setting outside an athletic event.