With the establishment of a STEM middle school and other initiatives, the Springfield. Massachusetts Public School System (SPS) has made a commitment to excellence in Technology/Engineering instruction for all of its 5700 students. To support this commitment, a partnership between the Springfield Middle Schools, Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), and Smith College has been funded through an NSF MSP-Start Partnership Grant. "Drafting a Blueprint for Teaching Tomorrow's Engineers Today" is a partnership program designed to foster deep and meaningful learning of engineering concepts among SPS Middle School Technology and Engineering teachers, as well as collaboratively enhance active learning that is designed to support deep learning and improved student success. "Tomorrow's Engineers" has three ultimate goals: (1) To increase awareness about engineering in approximately 5700 middle school (grades 6-8) students in the Springfield Public Schools, (2) To improve the knowledge base of about 240 future and in-service middle school science teachers so that they will have the skills, materials, and enthusiasm to excite their students about engineering, and (3) To create a fluid and dynamic engineering education pipeline where each level informs the preceding level about the skill base needed to ensure success.
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