Outreach activities for middle school students: Project for mechanical engineering undergraduate students

Abstract

The ASME Student Chapter, the SWE Student Chapter, the Mechanical Engineering faculty and staff have hosted a "Mechanical Engineering Day" at Gannon University, Erie, PA every spring since 2008. In average, 66 middle school students have participated in this event per year; while in 2011, the average participation was 90 students. The ASME's Center for Leadership & Diversity awarded a Diversity Action Grant (DAG) to the ASME student chapter to partially fund this event. This paper presents the "Mechanical Engineering Day" event where the participating middle school students were introduced to different areas of mechanical engineering, and were guided and supervised by college students as they performed three activities associated with different aspects of mechanical engineering. Every year, seniors and juniors were in charge of proposing and selecting the projects/activities for the event as well as preparing all the necessary guidelines and instructions. For the juniors, the proposals for activities were part of a course grade and students had to showcase an area of Mechanical Engineering. The selected activities have included the design and construction of an egg-drop module, heat transfer experiments demonstrations, design and construction of a beam, design and construction of a watercraft, and design and construction of a zip line, amongst others. Through active participation in the event, the mechanical engineering undergraduate students at Gannon University have learned the importance of involvement in community outreach programs and team work, have had the opportunity to improve their leadership and communication skills, and have appealed to the young minds of the middle school students to give a thought to how they can impact and change their lives and the society in a positive way. The objectives of the "Mechanical Engineering Day" were to establish an effective program to increase middle school student's exposure to engineering, to inspire middle school students to consider mechanical engineering/engineering as a future career, and to provide the undergraduate students opportunities for leadership and professional development. Middle school students learned about engineering and mechanical engineering careers, how engineers impact everyday life, and according to the survey, that engineering is fun. The event will be discussed from a project-based perspective in a classroom setting. The paper will describe the involvement of the undergraduate students in the organization and execution of the event, the activities proposed and selected, and the advantages of students' active participation. Finally, the lessons learned and challenges experienced will be discussed. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.