College and nonprofit industry partnership: coupling undergraduate projects with K-12 outreach program to enhance engineering education

摘要

The objective of this project is to improve undergraduate engineering education through the development of biologically-inspired educational tools, expose middle and high school students to exciting facets of engineering through the lens of biology, and enhance the educational programs at New Jersey Academy of Aquatic Sciences (NJAAS). To achieve this, a junior-level undergraduate course was developed and taught at Drexel University's Mechanical Engineering department. The course was closely coupled with the educational programs at NJAAS. The university and academy collaborated to simultaneously enrich the education of middle school, high school and undergraduate students through development and use of biologically-inspired educational devices. The experience of all students was recorded through surveys, observations and interviews. The partnership was assessed through surveys and interviews with the academy staff and observations and surveys of undergraduate students. The results suggested that the course, coupled with a real world partnership outside the university, improved the experience of undergraduate students by making it more engaging and practical and helped the undergraduate students develop a broader skill set. The results also suggested an increase in the interest of middle and high school students in learning about engineering through the use of biologically-inspired devices. The partnership also improved the educational programs at the academy through the use of biologically-inspired educational tools and enabled NJAAS to expand their curriculum to teach engineering topics. The collaboration helped increase engagement of undergraduate students in a university course, improved retention of undergraduate students in the field, developed a broader skill set for undergraduate students, and enhanced education for middle and high school students in Philadelphia and Camden school district.