Work In Progress: A Model For Cooperation Between University And K-12 Components In Science And Technology Education

The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and the Arlington Independent School District (AISD), the ninth largest school district in Texas, with over 60,000 students, recently began collaborating in providing science and technology education to high school students. This is through pre-engineering courses offered at AISD as a part of the Project Lead the Way program (PLTW). During this first year, five senior-level engineering students at UTA were awarded scholarships to assist in PLTW classrooms, as needed, one for each of five high schools. The author visited 8 PLTW classrooms, with a total of 150 students, discussing technical aspects of engineering and the program at UTA. The effort concluded for the year with a "technology day" at UTA, allowing PLTW students to interact with UTA faculty and students, and to visit research laboratories. Evaluation of methods and impact is based on observations of student assistants and feedback from PLTW instructors