PGE/SEP: Partners in Engineering: A Problem-Based Learning Approach for Encouraging Women and Girls in SMET

工程合作伙伴计划汇集了来自大学农村地区的少女和来自克拉克森大学的一组女工程专业学生。 学生将在每周放学后见面，进行指导，领导和多学科问题解决活动，并穿插实地考察和访问演讲者。 该计划将提高学生的参与，意识和对科学和工程的兴趣，并将提高他们的批判性思维能力和信心。 50到55名学生将直接受到该项目的影响。 该项目包括全面的评估和传播活动。一个整体的，基于问题的学习方法将被用作一种工具，教数学，工程，计算和科学概念。 这种方法不仅提高了学生的批判性思维和解决问题的能力，而且还促进了对工程学在更大的社会，政治和经济背景下的相关性和实用性的理解，这往往使这些学科更加“女性友好”。在两个学年的每一个课程中，大学生导师将带领中学生解决与他们学校社区相关的“现实世界”问题。 他们将被要求理解与问题相关的关键问题，然后找到并实施可接受的解决方案。

The Partners in Engineering Program brings together adolescent girls from the University's rural region and a team of women engineering students from Clarkson University. Students will meet after school on a weekly basis for mentoring, leadership, and multidisciplinary problem solving activities, interspersed with field trips and visiting speakers. The program will increase students' participation, awareness, and interest in science and engineering, and will increase their capabilities and confidence in their critical thinking skills. Fifty to fifty five students will be directly impacted by the project. The project includes thorough assessment and dissemination activities.A holistic, problem-based learning approach will be employed as a vehicle to teach math, engineering, computing and science concepts. This approach not only improves students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills, but also foster an understanding of the relevance and usefulness of engineering within a larger social, political, and economic context, which tends to make these subjects more "female friendly." Throughout the course of each of two school years, college student mentors will lead middle school participants through the solution of a "real-world" problem of relevance to their school community. They will be challenged to understand critical issues associated with the problem and then find and implement an acceptable solution.