Engineering classes gaining popularity in area high schools

Area school districts currently are observing Engineers Week, but are promoting their engineering programs throughout the year.

Engineers Week is the public culmination of a year-round portfolio of programs, according to the Engineers Week Foundation website, www.eweek.org.

Area school districts are doing their part to promote interest and understanding of math, science and the basics of engineering.

Fairfield High School is in its third year of offering three courses in a national program, Project Lead the Way.

PLTW involves more than 400,000 students throughout all 50 U.S. states, according to its website, www.pltw.org. ?PLTW classes are hands-on, based in real-world experience, and engaging for students and teachers. We set the highest standards for rigorous, focused and relevant study, and develop students? innovative, collaborative, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills,? it says.

Pekin Community High School in Packwood, Cardinal Community School in Eldon, Van Buren High School in Keosauqua, and Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, all offer PLTW engineering classes.

?We have three full-year classes,? said Chris Lee, FHS industrial technology instructor. ?Students can take these in any order, or just take one; there?s no sequence. ?We offer Introduction to Engineering Design; Principles of Engineering, which is a basic overview of all the various types of engineering; and Digital Electronics. Students learn yes/no pathways. For instance, programming for digital televisions uses yes/no pathways; 1 is yes, 0 is no.?

Lee said Principals of Engineering has 11 students this year and Digital Electronics has 15 students. More boys than girls have been taking the classes.

?In the Introduction to Engineering Design, we use computer-aided drafting with the Inventor program. It?s the same software used in industry for real world projects,? said Rob Mitchell, FHS vocational technology teacher.

?University of Iowa professors tell us that businesses are very eager to hire engineering graduates. We are working to get students interested,? he said.

Fairfield High School has already expanded its Introduction to Engineering Design class to two sections. This year, 32 students are taking the course, 17 in one section and 15 in the other.

Lee estimates about 70 percent of the Fairfield students coming out of PLTW classes continue with engineering studies in college.

?We have good support from local manufacturers and businesses,? he said. ?Classes tour their places, and they bring guest speakers into our classrooms.?

One of the events in recognition of Engineers Week is celebrating Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, which is today. FHS girls attended a luncheon at Agri Plastics today, said Jhonna Wallerich, FHS guidance counselor.

?We asked the girls to invite other girls who are not in Project Lead the Way to have lunch with us and hear a panel of women who are from various Fairfield industries that we partner with for PLTW,? said Wallerich. ?Our hope is that we can increase our number of girls that are participating in the classes and help them better understand what a career in engineering might be like.?

For the past 11 years, women engineers have introduced more than 1 million girls and young women to engineering, according to the Engineers Week Foundation website. ?More than just one day, Introduce a Girl to Engineering is a national movement that shows girls how creative and collaborative engineering is and how engineers are changing our world.?

Pekin High School is in its second year of offering PLTW?s Introduction to Engineering Design.

?It?s a great class,? said teacher Bill Dunham. ?I have six students this year. So far, it?s been only boys taking the class, but I?ve worked on recruiting girls, and the guidance counselor is working on recruiting girls.?

In Introduction to Engineering, students learn designing processes and how things are made.

?We use computer-aided drafting with auto desk inventor software,? said Dunham. ?It allows users to sketch and draw in 3-D. Students can turn their sketches and view them from any angle.

?They are learning solid models, engineer drawing, reverse engineering where they take a product apart to see how it?s built then think of improvements to make the product better. We go through graphic design, virtual design, advertising, marketing ? this course really digs into how things are built, why they are built and what can be done to improve upon a design or product.?

Dunham has taught three years in Pekin, three years at Cardinal and 10 years in Grundy Center. After Grundy Center and before Cardinal, he worked two years in industry ? as a teacher.

?I was an industrial trainer for two years,? he said. ?I worked with engineers, so that?s helped me.?

Teachers also take a two-week summer training course at Iowa State University before they are certified to teach PLTW courses.

?It was pretty intense,? Dunham said. ?We went to classes, then worked until midnight most nights on projects.?

Dunham also has an advisory committee he can turn to for advice, which includes mentors from Indian Hills Community College and an engineer from John Deere.

?I really enjoy teaching this class,? he said. ?It?s fun for the students, too. Some students are afraid to take it because it includes some higher end math, but they shouldn?t worry. It?s not that hard.?

Dunham said he hopes Pekin High School can add more PLTW classes.

?I want to involve more teachers in the program, such as science and math teachers,? he said.

High school students who pass the course?s final exam earn dual credit college credits with Indian Hills.

?We?re getting Iowa and Iowa State down here to get certified by them, then students can earn credit directly with one of those universities,? said Dunham.

?We?re hitting some really neat stuff in the class. It keeps getting better and better, ? he said.

The National Engineers Week Foundation is a coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies. It is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science.

Founded as ?National Engineers Week? in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, Engineers Week is among the oldest of America?s professional outreach efforts. To reflect the global nature of engineering and Engineers Week partners, the foundation eliminated ?National? in the week?s name. In the United States, however, local groups often still use ?national,? it says on its website.