Introducing Engineering into the Dominican Republic Classroom: Teacher Workshops

摘要

First-year students beginning engineering at Ohio Northern University are engaged in a year-long Introduction to Engineering course sequence. The second semester of this sequence is a first-year cornerstone course in which all engineering students propose and design a device to alleviate some effect of poverty in an assigned population. Ohio Northern University is also in their second year of an innovative, new and unique Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Education. Tying these opportunities together resulted in the development of workshops to introduce engineering, math and science into classrooms in the Dominican Republic. A team from ONU visited a series of three schools affiliated with Solid Rock International in the Dominican to introduce hands-on math concepts to teachers from classrooms with 3 year olds through high school. Over 100 teachers who teach over 2,200 students attended the program and were introduced to the engineering design process and activities available on the IEEE tryengineering.org web site. These activities are typically part of the IEEE Teacher In Service Program (TISP), which is designed to train engineers to hold in-service workshops for teachers who then take hands-on engineering projects into their classroom. Teachers are provided with lesson plans (available in English and Spanish), tied to educational standards in the United States. Each activity is designed to be inexpensive (often less than U.S. $10 for a classroom). This program has been successfully implemented throughout the United States for over ten years and has seen very limited international expansion to countries with a strong IEEE presence. This paper will discuss the very successful workshops, including assessment collected at the conclusion of each workshop. The structure of the workshops and the involvement opportunities for the undergraduate students who participated will also be described. This paper will be of interest to programs with available international service opportunities for undergraduate students or programs interested in innovative activities to introduce engineering into K-12.