Engineering principles for high school students

This paper gives some background information and the results of teacher attitudes toward engineering from a capstone engineering course for pre service and in service science and mathematics teachers. The course was designed with collaboration from the colleges of engineering and education to increase the interest of high school students in careers in engineering. The course, Science and Technology for High School Teachers, was taught for the first time in the fall of ´98. It was designed to increase the awareness and competence in various areas of engineering of high school science and mathematics pre service and in service teachers. The paper also reports the pre test and post test results of a three-week science unit on engineering principles and design that was taught by one of the teachers in the capstone course. The results of the study indicate that more knowledge of engineering makes attitudes of high school students more favorable toward engineering.