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

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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.