[an error occurred while processing this directive]

STEP UP Summer Engineering Camp offers a weeklong engineering experience for young women in high school.

STEP UP Engineering Camp offers young women in high school a week to explore engineering concepts and careers.This is one of many projects initiated by the Engineering Talent Pipeline.

 

Projects and Publications of the Engineering Talent Pipeline

Activities supported by the Engineering Talent Pipeline fell under four main categories: Student Support, Outreach, Course Development, and Evaluation and Planning.. The following is a comprehensive list of ETP projects. Under each description you will find related publications, products and other resources.

Comprehensive ETP Project List (PDF)   Publication List (PDF)

Student Support:

  • The Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) is an ongoing project to support under-represented engineering students through mentoring; the PALS summer bridge program; student organizations (including American Indian SES, Society for Hispanic Professional Engineering, Society for Women Engineers and National Society for Black Engineers); and individualized student assistance with financial aid, scholarships, internships, and other areas of need. Recruiting of under-represented students is also accomplished through planning and implementation of targeted events.

Contact: Fonda Swimmer, 928-523-2110

  • Intersections between Science and Engineering Education and Indigenous Self-determination, AISES 2007
  • Engineers without Borders is a powerful way to involve students with real-world humanitarian engineering—a known factor in recruiting and retaining students from underrepresented populations, especially women. The ETP supported NAU's EWB student chapter through sponsorship of the Rocky Mountain Regional EWB Workshop held in Flagstaff in Fall 2007 and travel for an NAU student group to attend the National EWB meeting in Seattle in Spring 2008.

Contact: Paul Trotta 928-523-4330

  • Humanitarian Engineering Outreach Activity (PDF / PowerPoint)
  • Training Intuition in Math for Engineering Success (TIMES) is a leveraged activity funded by the Arizona Board of Regents to address the difficulty many engineering students experience relating and appling mathematics to solve everyday problems. This project designed training activities and tools to improve student performance in entry-level engineering foundation courses.
    Contact: Phil Mlsna, 928-523-2112 or Janet McShane, 928-523-1252

  • The ETP provided matching funds to purchase a Rapid Prototype Machine and Dynamometer System in response to an interest in providing hands-on experience in the Design4Practice program.
    Contact: John Tester, 928-523-0032 or Constantin Ciocanel, 928-523-2439

  • AZTutor was a one-year pilot exploring online tutoring for engineering students to provide additional support for barrier engineering courses. We found that engineering students did not use the online tool and were best supported with supplemental instruction and in-person tutoring, now provided for key engineering courses through NAU's Learning Assistance Centers.

Contact: Shane Pablo, 928-523-3796

  • Conference Support : Through the ETP's five-year history, we providd matching support for many students, staff and faculty members to travel to professional conferences and meetings for applied learning, professional exposure, and networking.

Outreach:

  • Engineering Outreach Program developed strategies and tools to build partnerships with schools in the West—from middle schools to partner universities. The project began in 2003/2004 with revitalization of Engineering Day, an event to bring high school students on campus to see engineering exhibits and participate in comepetions. Development of a recruitment resources directory of Arizona High Schools including school profiles, student performance indicators and school contact information followed. The engineering student recruiters project was then developed to train a skilled cadre of engineering students to be effective communicators with potential future engineering students. The student chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers capitalized on their Mini Baja competition vehicle as a means for drawing interest to engineering careers. in 2005, the ETP funded a part-time recruiting coordinator position for the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences which the college leveraged into an ongoing full time position in 2007. In 2007, the ETP funded development of a suite of outreach materials including specialized curricula and kits for 8th through 12th grade students (available for checkout through Marissa Mourer). In 2007, we piloted the Verde Valley Rally as an approach to recruiting from the Hispanic community by inviting students and their families to an event in Spanish discussing opportunities in engineering. In 2008, Junkyard Generators was added to the list of on-campus events for high school students bringing innovations from the junkyard to inspire power generation design. The Engineering Outreach Program was leveraged with a three-year Science Foundation Arizona grant to continue engineering outreach through the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals' Environmental Education Outreach Program.

Contact: Marissa Mourer 928-523-5194 and Mansel Nelson 928-523-1275

  • Sonia Kovalevsky Math Day On one Saturday every year, the Mathematics and Statistics Department and Engineering Departments sponsor a day for mathematically talented high school women, parents and teachers to come to campus for a diverse day of activities featuring women scientists, engineers, and mathematicians and their work. ETP funding leveraged other sponsorships and provided marketing materials to help sustain this ongoing event.

Contact: Amy Rushall, 928-523-0660

  • STEP UP Summer Engineering Camp is a residential summer camp for young women in high school hosted by the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP). The camp was developed with ETP funding and leveraged with external funds including an award from Science Foundation Arizona to expand the program to include a full-time program coordinator, an additional summer camp for young men, and a camp focused on engineering relevant to Native American communities. Developing key corporate partnerships such as Medtronic and Intel have been integral to sustainability of the camp.

Contact: Fonda Swimmer, 928-523-2110

  • Nizhoni Academy: A one-year pilot effort in 2006 supported five students who expressed an interest in engineering to attend NAU’s summer Nizhoni Academy. This four-week academic camp provides students with rigorous math and science curriculum augmented with opportunities for exposure to a range of engineering disciplines. This pilot built a bridge with the Multicultural Engineering Program.
    Contact: Melissa Begay, 928-523-6982

  • Successful Transition and Academic Readiness (STAR) developed two one-year inititives. STAR on the Road was designed to recruit student participants to the Multicultural Engineering Program's Summer Engineering Bridge Program (PALS). The second proejct provided PALS graduates a Peer Advisor to ease them through their first year in the engineering program. These initiatives were not continued.

  • Freshman Incentives Scholarships: Few scholarships are available for entering engineering freshmen, and some cover only tuition costs for one semester. Since sophomore scholarships are based on academic performance in the fall semester of the freshman year, a Freshman Incentives Scholarship project was created to bolster awareness of the need for high academic performance and to provide for a gap in financial support for freshmen. These scholarships supported under-represented and first generation students.The one-year pilot was successful, and leveraged corporate funding for additional scholarships. It was not continued due to lack of staffing.

  • Web Recruiting Initiatives were two of our more exploratory projects. One project focused on integrating multimedia content into the engineering web site. A web-based engineering game was developed with the goal of introducing engineering to a diverse audience of technology-savvy people through a web gaming environment. A prototype game was developed. Both initiatives were not continued.

 
 

Course Development:

  • Pre-engineering Math Courses: The Four Corners Upward Bound Math and Science Program continued its collaboration with the Mathematics and Statistics and Engineering Departments to refine the pre-engineering math courses for high school students and entering NAU freshmen. This project addresses critical math concepts students need to be successful in engineering. The courses were offered to Upward Bound Math and Science summer campers and entering NAU freshmen enrolled in the Summer Engineering Bridge Program (PALS).  Contact: Terry Hubbard, 928-523-1315

  • Digital Logic (EGR 110) has been updated and reformatted for freshmen to learn and reinforce critical concepts in computer science through a series of Java applets and lab applications. Includes Java applet and outreach activities which offer opportunities for pre-college students to explore the world of electrical engineering.

Contact: Phillip Mlsna, 928-523-2112

  • Introduction to Bioengineering Course (EGR 199) offers freshmen and sophomores an opportunity to explore cutting-edge concepts in biological engineering. A proposal has been submitted to the National Science Foundation for a significant expansion of this Biological Sciences and Electrical Engineering collaboration into a new biological engineering emphasis for electrical engineering majors at NAU. This new course is an exciting collaboration between NAU’s Biological Sciences and Electrical Engineering Departments within the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences.
  • Contact: Paul Flikkema, 928-523-6114

  • Design4Practice Course (EGR 286) Design4Practice is a four-year series of courses at NAU in which students engage in real-world design projects using a product realization process. The sophomore Design 4 Practice course (EGR 286) was redesigned over two years to integrate Lego Team Challenge kits into design challenges where teams of students ground their theoretical coursework in practical engineering challenges.

Contact: John Tester, 928-523-0032

  • Advanced Software Engineering (CS386) was a two-year course redesign of the Computer Science Department's junior level course in the Design4Practice series. This effort integrated industry partners and work flow to parallel real-world software design.

Contact: Dieter Otte, 928-523-0876

Evaluation and Planning:

  • Assessment: Assessments to evaluate the impact of individual program elements on retention and recruitment were conducted on the above projects and we piloted a 1st year student survey this year to assess recruitment activities and to identify what students are finding helpful and barriers to student success.. Assessment and dissemination of results have been encouraged through targeted mini-grants.  One of which was development of tools to sustain a longitudinal assessment of STEP UP Camp. Contact: Rand Decker, 928-523-6083.

  • Enrollment & Retention Data Analysis This project collected and analyzed enrollment and retention data at NAU, in the Southwest and nationwide; identified enrollment and retention issues that may have relevance to NAU; and reviewed manpower demand forecasts as they might affect projected enrollment. A paper on retention written by members of CET’s Admissions, Recruitment, and Retention Committee was presented at the ASEE 2003 Annual Conference in Nashville.
    Contact: David Scott, 928-523-3162

  • Retention Data & Tracking System This project utilizes NAU’s student data collection systems (LOUIE and PeopleSoft) to devise a student tracking system that will: (1) help identify root causes of retention problems; (2) identify students at risk and provide information to help them even before encountering academic or personal problems that could affect their retention; and (3) measure the effectiveness of interventions. This project is ongoing in 2003/2004.
    Contact: David Scott, 928-523-3162

  • Academic Publication Research: The goal of this project was to search academic publications in the western region describing both successful and unsuccessful college activities that had the primary objective of improving enrollment, retention and graduation rates of engineering students. The project proposed to develop evaluation metrics for future planning and outcome assessment. Results of this and other background research were presented at an ETP working group retreat.
    Contact: John Tester, 928-523-0032

  • Survey of Engineering Students: The goal of this project was to answer two key questions: why students chose NAU’s engineering programs and why they stayed through reviewing current data and developing and implementing surveys. Efforts are ongoing in year two. Contact: Fonda Swimmer, 928-523-2110

  • Pre-College Programs & Outreach Research: The goal of this effort was to inform Hewlett grant participants of existing and potential programs in the pre-college arena and those offered through NAU’s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals. Contact: Mansel Nelson, 928-523-1275

  • Website Evaluation and Planning: The initial goal of the project was to inform Hewlett grant participants of the status of the existing CET website and identify model websites to utilize in updating the CET website to aid in recruitment and retention of students. Although beyond the scope of the project. The CET website was updated and reformatted and online late spring 2004.
    Contact: David Scott, 928-523-3162

 

 
 

Refer this page to a friend

© 2008 Arizona Board of Regents.
Northern Arizona University, South San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011