Collaborative Research: Creating a National Network of Engineering Ambassadors: A Professional Development Program with an Outreach Mission

该项目通过创建一个全国性的工程大使计划网络来满足工程领域更多样化的入学需求，该计划目前正在宾夕法尼亚州立大学，伦斯勒理工学院（RPI），康涅狄格大学（UConn）和伍斯特理工学院（WPI）进行。这些计划通过让本科工程师执行初中和高中的外展使命来培养他们的沟通和领导技能。工程大使计划将正确的信使-工程专业的学生谁被教导先进的演讲技巧-与正确的信息-信息有关的工程从改变对话，由国家工程学院做的一项研究-在初中和高中学生面前。国家科学基金会的一项讲习班赠款被用来在其他17个地理位置不同的机构培训2-4名工程大使。现在，该项目正在扩大网络，将这17个试点项目的2-4名大使增加了10倍。这种扩张有两个关键目标：（1）提供有价值的沟通和领导技能，以更多的工程学生谁是成为大使，和（2）有这些大使发言，初中和高中学生，以进一步增加学生进入工程的多样性。该项目正在确定工程大使计划在宾夕法尼亚州立大学，RPI，UConn和WPI大使专业发展方面的成功是否会转移到美国其他16个机构。该项目使500名本科工程师（其中大多数来自代表性不足的群体）拥有先进的演示技能，例如幻灯片设计的断言证据方法。然后，这500名本科生正在为美国各地的初中和高中的70，000多名学生创作并提供精心制作的演讲。因为这些演讲携带着改变对话的信息，这些演讲增加了这些学生对工程的兴趣。此外，这些初中和高中的750多名科学和数学教师受到了演讲的影响，他们被安排在大使离开后传达这些信息。

This project addresses the need for a more diverse enrollment in engineering by creating a national network of the Engineering Ambassador Programs that are currently under way at Penn State, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the University of Connecticut (UConn), and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). These programs develop the communication and leadership skills of undergraduate engineers by having them perform an outreach mission to middle and high schools. The Engineering Ambassador Programs place the right messenger - engineering students who have been taught advanced presentation skills - with the right message - messages about engineering from Changing the Conversation, a study done by the National Academy of Engineering - in front of middle and high school students. An NSF workshop grant was used to train 2-4 engineering ambassadors at 17 other geographically diverse institutions. Now the project is expanding the network by increasing ten-fold the 2-4 ambassadors at these 17 pilot programs. This expansion has two key goals: (1) providing valuable communication and leadership skills to additional engineering students who are becoming Ambassadors, and (2) having those Ambassadors speak to middle and high school students to further increase the diversity of students entering engineering. This project is determining whether the success that the Engineering Ambassador programs have had on the professional development of Ambassadors at Penn State, RPI, UConn, and WPI will transfer to 16 additional institutions across the United States. The project is empowering 500 undergraduate engineers, most of whom are from under-represented groups, with advanced presentation skills, such as the assertion-evidence approach to slide design. These 500 undergraduates are then creating and delivering well-crafted presentations to more than 70,000 students in middle and high schools across the United States. Because these presentations carry the messages of Changing the Conversation, these presentations are increasing interest in engineering among those students. Moreover, more than 750 science and math teachers in these middle and high schools are being influenced by the presentations and they are being placed in a position to deliver those messages after the Ambassadors have left.