Electricks: Pre-College Activities in Electro-Mechanics
Abstract
This research to practice full paper is a survey based paper that examines the impact of a set of experiments in electro-mechanics, designed to introduce pre-college students to electrical engineering in a fun, hands-on manner that demonstrates the basic principles of power generation and electromagnetism. It involves a set of 3 experiments which build on each other to teach the participants about how electrical currents and magnets create an electromotive force that can be used to generate power. These activities were presented alongside information about regional college level engineering programs that are accessible to the students. The program is an easily scalable addition to camp-based programs that can be taken to schools to introduce students who are unable to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) related extracurricular programs to engineering. Participating students were given surveys to gauge their level of interest and their tendency to choose engineering after performing the experiments. Participating schools were in the Springfield Public School district in Missouri.
Recommended Citation
A. J. Buckthorpe et al., "Electricks: Pre-College Activities in Electro-Mechanics," Proceedings of the 2018 Frontiers in Education Conference (2018, San Jose, CA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Oct 2018.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8658889
Meeting Name
2018 Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE (2018: Oct. 3-6, San Jose, CA)
Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Electrical engineering; Surveys; Electrical current; Electro-mechanics; Engineering program; Extra-Curricular Programs; Level Of Interest; Outreach; Pre-college; Public school districts; Students; Electromechanics
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-1-5386-1174-6
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1539-4565; 2377-634X
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2018 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Oct 2018
Comments
We wish to acknowledge the support of the Springfield public school district in conducting this research as well as all the support of the Office of Undergraduate Research Experience at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri. A continual work of integrating such outreach programs and opportunity to work closely with the teachers in the K12 demography in curriculum development and training will help to effectively reach more of the student groups that will benefit from such programs going forward.