Sirena Hargrove-Leak recently gave a talk, “Engaging Current and Future Engineering Students Using PBS Design Squad,” at the American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Section Meeting.
Her peer-reviewed manuscript of the same title appears in the conference proceedings. The meeting was held April 18-20 and hosted by engineering faculty at Virginia Tech.
The work highlights one of her efforts to expose young people to the joys of engineering as the profession continues to struggle to attract and retain domestic students. Sirena believes that service-learning is a great way to address both issues.
Therefore, the spring Challenges in Engineering (EGR 103) class has partnered with the Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) program at Marvin B. Smith Elementary to engage in engineering design using challenges crafted by the PBS television show Design Squad. The elementary students benefit from the early exposure to the engineering profession and the freshman engineering students benefit from the real world experience serving others.