October 16, 2009

NC State hosts NSF Engineering GK-12 Stakeholder Summit

Participants from the National Science Foundation and about 20 universities attended the NSF Engineering GK-12 Stakeholder Summit at North Carolina State University Oct. 8-9.

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Representatives of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and about 20 universities discussed ways to measure progress in boosting interest in engineering among children, young adults and college and graduate students at a summit at North Carolina State University Oct. 8-9.

The summit, hosted by NSF and the Engineering Place at NC State, drew about 50 attendees. The event focused on grantees from NSF’s Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program, which provides funding to graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to acquire additional skills that will broadly prepare them for professional and scientific careers in the 21st century. Teaching science and engineering principles to K-12 students helps graduate students communicate their research more effectively.

In the 10 years since the GK-12 Program began, participants have also seen a broader impact on a wider group of stakeholders, particularly K-12 students and teachers. The purpose of this meeting was to develop a strategy to measure and report these impacts.

“We were thrilled with the discussion and level of participation by this dynamic group of stakeholders,” said Dr. Laura Bottomley, director of the Engineering Place at NC State. “Through this summit and others like it, we can find new ways to increase our collective impact on recruitment and retention in K-20 engineering.”

Summit participants discussed ways to collect better data to monitor progress in increasing K-12 awareness and interest in engineering as well as engineering recruitment and retention; talked about efforts to move the impact of GK-12 into the national conversation; and learned about NC State’s RAMP-UP program run by Liz Parry of the Engineering Place. The group also discussed the clearinghouse K-12 engineering education website TeachEngineering.com and a National Academy of Engineering report on K-12 engineering education.

The Engineering Place is NC State’s K–20 education and resource headquarters for exploring engineering. Through hands-on summer camps, in-school mentoring, dynamic volunteer programs, topical workshops and much more, the Engineering Place builds excitement around engineering for students and teachers.

- degraff -

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