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项目网络，解决了工程专业招生更多样化的需求，目前该项目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）开展。这些项目通过让本科工程师到初中和高中执行拓展任务来培养他们的沟通和领导能力。工程大使项目将正确的信使——接受过高级演讲技巧教育的工程专业学生——与正确的信息——来自国家工程院所做的一项研究“改变对话”的工程信息——放在初高中学生面前。美国国家科学基金会的一项研讨会赠款用于在其他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10倍。这一扩展有两个关键目标：(1)为更多成为大使的工程专业学生提供宝贵的沟通和领导技能；(2)让这些大使向初高中学生演讲，以进一步增加进入工程专业的学生的多样性。该项目将决定工程大使项目在宾夕法尼亚州立大学、RPI大学、康涅狄格大学和WPI大学大使专业发展方面取得的成功是否会转移到美国其他16所院校。该项目让500名本科工程师（其中大多数来自代表性不足的群体）掌握了先进的演讲技巧，比如幻灯片设计中的断言-证据方法。然后，这500名本科生为全美7万多名初高中学生制作并发表精心设计的演讲。因为这些演讲传达了“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发表这些信息。

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.