Research Initiation Grant: Studying the Impact of Engineering Outreach

这项工程教育研究启动基金将帮助大学了解工程和教师拓展计划的有效性。由于拓展项目在许多大学都很常见，因此有可能利用这些项目对当前的工程专业学生进行非正式教育。该项目将研究如何利用这些项目进行外展和支持学习。这个项目更广泛的意义和重要性将为其他大学的外展项目如何更有效地提供信息。PI计划积极地将他们的发现传播到更广泛的社区，从而可能影响目前在工程学位课程中代表性不足的大量学生的招聘和保留。该项目与NSF的战略目标重叠，即通过培养具有新能力和专业知识的工程人才来改变前沿。此外，NSF为社会创新的目标是通过创造对社会有用的结果和研究，为教育政策和实践提供信息。

This engineering education research initiation grant will help universities understand the effectiveness of outreach programs on engineering and faculty. Since outreach programs are common at many universities, there potential to utilize these programs for informal education of current engineering students. This project will research how to use these programs for both outreach and to support learning.The broader significance and importance of this project will be to inform other university outreach programs how to be more efficient. The PI's plan to actively disseminate their findings to a broad community, thus potentially impacting recruitment and retention of a large number of students currently under-represented in engineering degree programs. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers through preparation of an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by creating results and research that are useful for society by informing educational policy and practices.