Morgan State University will be one of the lead institutions in a groundbreaking pilot program in engineering education, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), school officials announced.
The program, “Engineering for US All – E4USA: A National Pilot High School Engineering Course and Database,” is part of a three-year, $4 million initiative.
It marks an important milestone in the creation of a standardized, nationally recognized high school engineering course through which pre-college students can earn transferable course credits at the college level, said Jumoke Ladeji-Osias, the co-principal investigator for the program and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Morgan.
The program also includes professional development for teachers to support the course.
The E4USA team leaders anticipate that five Baltimore-area high schools and 15 others in Maryland will participate in the program beginning in the 2019-20 academic year.
“Morgan’s School of Engineering has a long history of involvement in pre-college engineering, and I am grateful to Dean Pines and the NSF for this opportunity to extend that successful track record,” Ladeji-Osias said.
“My work with E4USA is the culmination of the work I’ve done for Morgan at the pre-college level since 2015, partnering with Baltimore area teachers to enhance their skills in teaching engineering-related topics.”
Ladeji-Osias and Morgan’s School of Engineering will be involved in developing the E4USA syllabus and curriculum, developing standard rubrics for teachers to use in evaluating the students’ progress with the program’s hands-on engineering design products and distance-learning technologies, and working with the professional development team to customize the teacher training, according to school officials.
Through the pilot program, the E4USA investigators will seek to help “demystify” and “democratize” engineering and determine whether a broader diversity of students will become interested in careers in engineering education or practice.
Their research will also explore whether professional development can certify teachers who are highly qualified in engineering and help them train students to tackle and solve problems.
As a result of the grant, more than 1,000 students at approximately 40 high schools nationwide are expected to complete the pilot program during its three-year span. An additional 30 schools will participate indirectly with other funding.
The University of Maryland, College Park will lead the pilot in partnership with Arizona State University, Virginia Tech and Morgan State. Vanderbilt University will evaluate the curriculum, student learning and teacher training, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center will collaborate on dissemination of program information.
Dean Darryll J. Pines of the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering will also be a principal investigator for the program.
“With STEM and related fields leading the pathway toward the jobs of the future, it has become extremely important to fully prepare the next generations of workers and to begin expanding the talent pool before they even step foot on a college campus, and with innovative programs like E4USA we are placed in a better position to meet this need,” said Morgan President David Wilson. “I applaud this collaboration made possible by the National Science Foundation and look forward to the knowledge we all will gain from the research it produces.”
As a practicing engineer who is also involved in engineer recruitment at the college level, I am always encouraged by any effort to broaden the appeal of engineering to students. I am, however, curious what is meant by the phrase ‘help “demystify” and “democratize” engineering’. Without explanation, the term seems somewhat vague, leaving room for misinterpretation.
Thank you,
G. Scott Strahan, P.E.
In 1948 when I was a freshman in High School, my buddy’s father was a licensed surveyor that put us both to work in the Field. I received school credit for working which was in the morning. I started class at 10:00AM. By the time I was a senior I was workibng for a civil engineer and primarily doing the drafting, calculations and business planning because he had an Alcohol Problem.
After College in Mexico City when I returned to the US. I started working in Agricultural engineering again. I was a chairman for the America Society of Biological Engineers Pacific Region and was involved in setting up the State of California Registration for Agricultural Engineers at which time I also became registered. I have done work in numerous countries and have 26 Foreign Patents and 7 us patents. Starting Engineering is high school is a very positive step in maintaining and improving the Engineering Profession.
My Son is a California registered Civil Engineer who just recently got his third patent issued.