Set up and delivery of electrical and computer engineering projects at undergraduate engineering universities for outreach and partnership with K-12 STEM schools

This paper discusses the set up and delivery of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) projects with critical Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) components as part of “Engage K-12 students in ECE”, the outreach and partnership program to (a) inspire K-12 students to pursue careers in ECE disciplines, and (b) integrate K-12 STEM learning with the ECE disciplines at institutes of higher education. In this form of outreach, called direct outreach, the K-12 students are invited to the University on ECE day to participate in hands-on ECE project activities in the ECE laboratories. The projects relate engineering principles to design specifications with real-world constraints. The project overview and the steps required to build and validate the design are presented by the ECE faculty member in charge of the project activities. The faculty member and currently enrolled ECE undergraduate students assist the K-12 STEM students. The K-12 students complete a survey at the end of the project as part of the summative evaluation. The survey comprised two sections (a) quantitative (b) qualitative. Despite the limited duration of each project, the students rated the projects to be very effective (greater than 3.8 on 5) in the application of STEM to real-world problems.