Course brings college engineering to 11th, 12th graders

As many as 84 educationally disadvantaged high school students in California will be eligible to take a college-level engineering course this summer as part of a new curriculum partnership between Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) and Johns Hopkins University.

“What is Engineering?” is a 56-hour introductory course that exposes high school juniors and seniors to fields of engineering through a series of lectures, laboratories, and hands-on projects. The course was developed by Hopkins’ Whiting School of Engineering, which has successfully offered it to pre-college students in the Baltimore community for five years.

Up to 21 students from each of four MESA centers will participate. The students, from MESA programs at CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara and the University of the Pacific, will be the first students outside Maryland to take the course.

The course introduces students to the analytic tools and techniques used in the engineering profession. Assignments include experiments, design, construction and testing of machines and structures, oral and written communication and team-based project management. The students will also participate in industry field trips to expose them to the opportunities and demands of a professional engineering work environment.

To be eligible, the MESA students must demonstrate their ability to complete college-level work as evidenced by their academic record, test scores and recommendations. Students earning an A or B will receive three (3) college credits; those with a C grade or below who complete all course assignments and participate in all field trips will be awarded a certificate of participation.

Hopkins is working with MESA to deliver the course as part of its broad-based Engineering Innovation Program, which will initiate three science/technology-based courses nationwide to students in grades 8-12. Hopkins hopes to grow the program to 250 classes serving 5,000 students nationally by 2010. MESA provides Hopkins with access to a large population of educationally disadvantaged students, with a high percentage of historically underrepresented students, who have strong academic support and encouragement to succeed in math, science and engineering.

The partnership fits MESA’s long-term strategy of addressing the critical shortage of engineering and technology professionals in California and the United States. It will allow MESA to offer a rigorous, college-level engineering course to educationally disadvantaged students that will accelerate their knowledge of and attraction to careers in these fields.

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