Service and Design as Mechanisms to Impassion the Study of Engineering, from K-12 to Higher Education

Service and design provide mechanisms to introduce students to successive stages of engineering education. These activities positively influence outreach to K-12 students, recruitment of women and underrepresented minorities to engineering, retention of undergraduate engineering students, and encouragement and funding for graduate education. Furthermore, service and design provide continuity and motivation across engineering education. These offer experiential learning opportunities in practical problem solving while simultaneously promoting personal development of communication skills and team leadership. Strategies are discussed for implementing service and design components in engineering education at all levels from K-12 to graduate education. For K-12 outreach, a mentoring program called DREAM is highlighted. Opportunities for outreach and externally reviewed proposal writing and presentations are discussed in the context of undergraduate design. These can be implemented through both traditional course work and alternative design projects. Finally, the impact of all of the above activities on graduate education, particularly graduate funding, is discussed.