EAGER:Identifying and Disseminating Transformative Professional Development of Engineering Undergraduates Who Perform Outreach

理工科和数学专业的大学生不仅需要具备较强的技术能力，还需要具备较强的专业技能，如写作、演讲、团队合作等。不幸的是，许多行业领导者反映，这些学生的专业技能不够强。因此，学院和大学正在寻找新的方法来加强这些技能。在现有课程中添加额外的课程内容或创建新课程来教授这些内容通常是不可行的，因为课程已经很拥挤了。在课程之外，技术领域的本科生学习专业技能的一个机会是通过外展活动。在这些活动中，本科生接触到小学、初中和高中的年轻学生，交流他们各自领域发生的事情。例如，拓展活动可以包括为中学生举办一个关于机器人的夏令营，或者访问一所高中进行电气工程演示。本科生不仅接受了这些拓展活动的培训，而且他们有机会将所学到的知识进行多次实践。最近，一个名为工程大使网络（Engineering Ambassadors Network）的拓展项目发现，其中一个特殊的培训和实践序列让参与的本科生显著提高了他们的演讲技巧。由于全国各地都有大量的外展项目，问题就来了：其他外展项目是否有培训和实践环节，能让本科生大大提高其他专业技能？本项目旨在确定美国哪些外展项目为参与的工程本科生提供了最具变革性的专业发展。为了实现这一目标，我们确定了四个任务：(i)对涉及工程本科生的现有外展项目进行系统审查；与外联顾问召开一次讲习班，以建立一个网络和共同做法的专题部分；综合从讲习班获得的数据，以确定专业发展的变革做法；（iv）召开两次全国培训研讨会，向执行外展的工程本科生传播实践。由许多利益相关者组成的咨询委员会为该项目提供指导。为了传播项目成果，我们正在使用多个场所和一系列沟通方式。特别是，我们的目标是许多由工程本科生进行有组织的外展活动的项目。具体地说，正在通过上述两个国家讲习班、学术论文、针对广泛受众的在线报告和专业发展变革实践的在线教程进行传播。

Undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and math not only need to enter the workforce with strong technical skills, but also with strong professional skills such as writing, presenting, and working in teams. Unfortunately, many leaders in industry report that the professional skills of these students are not strong enough. Therefore, colleges and universities are looking for new ways to strengthen these skills. Adding additional course content to existing courses or creating new courses to teach this content is often not feasible due to already crowded curricula. Outside of courses, one opportunity for undergraduates in technical fields to learn professional skills is through outreach activities. In these activities, undergraduates reach out to younger students in elementary, middle, and high schools and communicate what occurs in their respective fields. For example, outreach could include hosting a summer camp for middle school students on robotics or visiting a high school to give an electrical engineering demonstration. Not only do undergraduates receive training for these outreach activities, but they have the opportunity to practice what was learned multiple times. Recently, one outreach program, the Engineering Ambassadors Network, discovered that one of their particular training-and-practice sequences led the participating undergraduates to dramatically improve their presentation skills. Because scores of outreach programs exist around the country, the question arises: Do other outreach programs have training-and-practice sequences that lead undergraduates to greatly improve other professional skills?This project seeks to determine which outreach programs in the United States provide the most transformative professional development of the participating undergraduates from engineering. To accomplish this goal, we have identified four tasks: (i) perform a systematic review of existing outreach programs involving engineering undergraduates; (ii) convene a workshop with outreach advisors to establish a network and thematic strands of common practices; (iii) synthesize the data obtained from the workshops to identify transformative practices of professional development; and (iv) convene two national training workshops to disseminate the practices to engineering undergraduates who perform outreach. An advisory board, composed of a number of stakeholders, provides guidance for this project. To disseminate the project's results, we are using a number of venues and a range of communication methods. In particular, we are targeting the many programs that conduct organized outreach performed by engineering undergraduates. Specifically, dissemination is occurring through the two national workshops mentioned above, academic papers, an online report targeting a wide audience, and online tutorials for the transformative practices of professional development.