Work In Progress: A Pre-University Engineering Education Partnership with Engineering Societies, Educator Associations and Industry

IEEE has begun work on an initiative to increase the pre-university education communities\´ familiarity with engineering and engineering concepts in an effort to encourage students to pursue engineering as a program of study and career choice. The initiative consists of three major components: 1) The Center for Pre-University Engineering Education, a primary interface between industry, engineering associations, and the pre-university education community; 2) TryEngineering.org, to include resources for counselors, teachers, parents, and students; and 3) The Teacher In-Service Program. This paper will focus on our progress in: 1) establishing the Center for Pre-University Engineering Education to include several engineering societies, and 2) developing a Web site, "TryEngineering", in partnership with IBM, the New York Hall of Science and two counselor associations. TryEngineering will include, among other assets, a section for counselors and a university search feature allowing users to locate engineering and engineering technology programs in the US and Canada