How to Get Involved in K-12 Schools

Dusty Fisher, chair of the IEEE-USA Precollege Education Committee, and the committee’s past-chair Ken Reid, led an exciting talk about how IEEE members can become involved in their local schools.

Fisher started by asking the audience what is the biggest technology milestone of the new decade. After receiving audience answers of smart grid, twitter, and others, Fisher gave the answer: Computer Engineer Barbie. Yes, Barbie’s next profession will be a computer engineer!

“Barbie -- because she’s an engineer -- is seriously going to impact girls and boys. Boys will look at girls differently and believe they can contribute,” said Fisher. “They go on sale in October and I’ve already ordered three.”

In order to impact today’s Barbie generation, IEEE members must get into the schools and interact with children. A few things that don’t work in terms of talking to schools and doing projects with students, according to Fisher:

• Sending a fax
• Sending an e-mail
• Cold calling
• Letters to the board or principal
• Diaspora of K-12 environment, including charter, private, public, parochial, districts, counties, cities and home schooling

So how can you get involved? Find a child in school -- maybe your own -- and get involved in a particular school effort, such as robotics competitions, the Future Cities competition, science fairs, and science and math clubs. Mentor and encourage the students! Read about how IEEE members are involved in the FIRST Robotics competition: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2009/Jun/FIRST.asp and the BEST Robotics competition: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2009/Nov/BEST.asp

Once you make contact with a teacher, you should tell them about IEEE-USA Teacher Reward/Grants that are available. Read one teacher’s firsthand story about receiving this award: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2008/Jul/PEC.asp.

Reid followed with a discussion about other ways you can get involved:

· JETS TEAMS competition: http://www.jets.org/TEAMS/index.cfm. IEEE members can join teams and mentor students.

· Project Lead the Way -- middle and high school curriculum to get students ready for engineering or technology in college: http://www.pltw.org. IEEE members can serve on the local boards and certification teams.

· MentorNet -- IEEE members can become mentors for college students: http://www.mentornet.net/.

· National Girls Collaborative Project: http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org/ngcp/.

· Teacher in Service Program (TISP): http://www.ieee.org/web/education/preuniversity/tispt.

· Develop a speakers’ bureau in your section and have IEEE members give presentations at schools.

The bottom line: Go out and inspire future engineers!

For more information about the IEEE-USA Precollege Education Committee activities, visit: http://ieeeusa.org/volunteers/committees/pec/index.html.