ENGINEERING KITS

"E-KITS" - ENGINEERING KITS

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT GRANT

Executive Summary: The Engineering Kits (or E-Kits) project developed, established distribution, and tested use of a set of “engineering exploration kits” to be used in educational outreach in grades K-12. The kits are designed to be fun, “hands-on” activities that introduce students to experimentation, hypothesis testing, data collection, and analysis – critical engineering skills. The kits are priced for individual use so that each child gains confidence from creating a product. This is especially crucial for young girls. The Pittsburgh Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in conjunction with the local student chapters of SWE and KidTech, Inc., a non-profit educational support company whose mission is innovative science/math education reform, ran the project.
Narrative Description – The purpose of the project is to develop, distribute and use a set of “engineering exploration kits”. The kits are designed to be fun, hands-on activities that demonstrate an engineering principle or engineering methodology. The goal of the project is to use these kits to mitigate some of the issues that prevent girls (and boys) from understanding engineering and its specialty areas, thus preventing consideration of engineering as a career choice. The intent is for the kits to be used by a variety of organizations including schools, day care centers, summer camps, scouts, 4H clubs, and, of course, SWE members/sections. The kits are designed to be priced for individual use. This allows each young person to build and take home something that helps them develop self-esteem and helps them to remember their experience. It also helps avoid gender issues that may arise during a group project (i.e. the boys, or most aggressive students take over the project). The kits come with a manual that includes kit assembly instructions, data collection and analysis ideas. The manual also includes background information that relates the activity to an engineering principle or application. The background information is designed to be sufficient for any adult, not necessarily someone with a technical background, to use with students. The kits in this project were developed for Grades 6 – 9 but may be used for other ages with adjustments.

The first phase of the project was a “Kits for Kids Contest” run in the fall of 1998. The contest was run at each of four participating universities, Carnegie Mellon University, Penn State University, West Virginia University, and the University of Pittsburgh. The SWE student sections at each of the universities coordinated the contest efforts. Flyers were posted at each of the universities advertising a $100 prize for the top five overall kit entries. (Note: We had originally planned to have $50 prizes but were advised by several university staff members that $100 was more likely to catch the student’s attention.) All university students were welcome to participate. Contest guidelines were available at the SWE student section offices. Final kit entries were collected at the SWE offices and forwarded to the project manager.

The contest was scheduled to conclude at the end of November, 1998. However, because of a number of issues such as getting a slightly later start than anticipated (mid-September rather than late August), student anticipation of the end of the semester, and just getting the attention of the students, the response to the contest was lower than anticipated. The contest was extended into January to help increase the response. From this experience we learned that we needed to get information out to the students as quickly as possible; that, if possible, we should have a professional member associated with the project present it to the student section to generate interest; and that sample kits would be a great help to get the students started.

In the end, we received 8 entries from two of the four universities with which we were working. The five winning kits were chosen by a committee from the Pittsburgh SWE section in mid-February. Four of the kits were chosen for production and were transferred to KidTech a week later. The winning kits were:

· An Industrial Engineering Kit , which is provided as a classroom kit, contains 30 “click” type pens that are disassembled and then the students break into groups and develop an efficient process for assembling the pens. Each student takes home a pen that has “SWE Kits for Kids” marked on the side. This kit was designed by Deanna Hoekstra from Penn State University.

· An basic Electromagnet Kit designed by Reena Singhal from Carnegie Mellon University that provides each student with the materials to build their own electromagnet.

· A Big Bridge Kit designed by Joey Lenze from Penn State University that provides each student with the materials to build a truss bridge with colorful popsicle-type sticks.

· A Small Bridge Kit designed by Adrienne Messenger from Carnegie Mellon University which provides each student with the materials to build a truss bridge with wood applicator sticks (similar in size to wooden skewers) and vinyl tubing.

Start up production also took longer than anticipated and sample kits were not available until the 1998/1999 school year was virtually over so the kits were not tested as soon as originally planned.

The prototype kits have been used/presented at a couple of events since the fall of 1999. They were presented at the Western PA Mensa Regional Gathering on September 4, 1999 by SWE member Sue Spade. Twelve of each the kits were provided for workshops at the Mensa Regional gathering in Pittsburgh. Due to scheduling conflicts at the conference the kits were not actually used by any students but they were critiqued by several of the adults who attended. The comments provided by these reviewers were evaluated and passed on to KidTech as appropriate. The unused kits from the Mensa Gathering were returned to the project manager for use by other groups.

Kits were also provided to the CMU SWE student section for the High School Days program held on October 11, 1999. A selection of each type of kit was provided to the students but they chose to concentrate on using the “Small Bridge” kits. Although the kits were originally designed for middle school students, the slightly older students in this group responded well to the kits. At first they were tentative but after constructing the first truss shape they quickly became involved in the project and responded to the guidance that they received from the CMU SWE students.

Sixty of the electromagnet kits were used with fourth and fifth grade students at Peebles Elementary School in suburban Pittsburgh as part of their Science Fair and Career Exploration Day on March 9, 2000. This was a slightly younger age group than the kit was originally designed for but this is the grade level where electromagnetism is first taught so the kits were felt to be a good fit for this group also. The kits were presented first to a group of thirty fifth graders and then to thirty fourth graders by SWE member Marilyn Reeder. She was assisted by a classroom teacher. Each student was provided with a kit and guided through the activity. Ms. Reeder augmented this activity by describing how electromagnetism has been part of the products that she has produced in her career as a mechanical engineer and by sharing the book Everyday Machines, Amazing Devices We Take for Granted by John Kelly (ISBN 1-57036-155-X). The book is a large format book that describes machines with which students this age are familiar (toasters, TVs, VCRs, hair blowers, vacuum cleaners, personal cassette players, doorbells, etc.). The operation of several of these machines depends on electromagnets and this book is a good supplement to this activity. One of the young students was overheard to say, “Now I know how my doorbell really works!” At the end of the presentation each student took home his/her kit.

The remaining few electromagnet kits were used by the project manager with her daughter’s Brownie troop as part of their “Science Wonders” try-it badge. Static electricity is a standard part of this try-it and electromagnets seemed a logical extension of this activity. The students in this case were in the second and third grade. As all of the students were girls and there were only a few kits remaining, the girls worked in groups to complete the activity. Nonetheless it was an activity that they all became engaged in. They quickly began a competition to see which group could pick up the most paper clips and enjoyed exploring the ways that they could achieve this.

On February 8, 2001 fourteen of the Big Bridge kits were used by SWE member Regina Stirzel and her husband at a Cub Scout meeting. During this session the bridges were used to illustrate the scientific method so that the Cub Scouts could earn a belt loop. Again, this was a group of children younger than the kits were actually designed for but with adaptation and more adult involvement it was a very successful activity.

The remaining kits are scheduled to go into specific schools over the next month or two. Any feedback from this usage will be used to improve the kits under DR055. The current kit costs and number produced can be found in the budget section of this report.

Measured results - Verbal feedback from all adults and SWE member who have seen the kits has been overwhelmingly positive. We expected to reach about 300 students but will reach more than that by at least 150 students. We were unable to survey students directly (especially in the school environment) because it becomes a privacy issue.
Publicity or other public attention - There was no publicity specifically related to the kits.
Description of deliverables – The deliverables are designs for four engineering kits: the Big Bridge Kit, the Electromagnetism Kit, the Pen Panic Kit, and the Small Bridge Kit. KidTech, Inc puts these kit designs into production. The kits include materials for one child to perform the activity (except the case of the Pen Panic kit which comes with materials for a classroom of 30), a teacher’s manual, and, if required, a separate student’s manual or worksheets. The kits purchased as part of this grant have been and are continuing to be used as prototypes with feedback being used for kit improvements.
Lessons learned – The project has extended for a longer period of time than originally expected. This has been a combination of many things. First, the response to our contest was less than expected so we gave the students some extra time. Second, KidTech was a start-up company as this project was beginning and development of the kits was slower than expected. Then, a series of events in the life of the Project Manager (starting graduate school, quitting her job, having a serious illness in the family) have provided continual distractions. If doing this type of project again, it would be wise to have a back up Project Manager who would be able to commit to carry on with the project.
Budget and Actuals –

The amount of the grant was $2000.00 and the budget, proposed and actual, is shown below:

Expense	Proposed Cost	Actual Cost
Contest Awards	5 awards at $50 each: $250.00	5 awards at $100 each: $500.00
Kit Costs	75 sets of 4 kits at $5 per kit $1500.00	355 individual kits & 10 classroom kits at various prices (see table below) $1482.82
Misc. (copying, shipping)	$250.00	$0.00

Total Expenses	$2000.00	$1982.82

Details on the cost of the kits, the number of each type of kit received, the number on order, the number used to date, and the number scheduled for use in the next months are shown on the next page.

Kit	Cost per Kit (Current)	# Received	# On Order	# Used	# Scheduled for use
Big Bridge	$3.75	75	130	15	190
Electromagnetism	$5.00	75	50	75	50
Pen Panic *	$10.00	10	0	1	9
Small Bridge	N/A **	25	0	14

*The Pen Panic kit covers a class of 30. All other kits are individual kits.

**The Small Bridge kit is currently not being produced.

Note: The kits listed as “Scheduled for use” have been requested for specific schools and/or group use. All kits are spoken for except for the last 11 small bridge kits.

Note: The cost of the kits has changed over the course of the project. The cost listed above is the current price.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT GRANT

Final Report Cover Sheet

DR# 001

Project Title: Engineering Kits Date: 2/20/01

Project Manager: Elizabeth Babyak Section: Pittsburgh

Email: psubabyak@earthlink.net Phone: 724-864-7588

Deliverables: Indicate type (i.e. document, web page, brochure, etc.), title, and media (hard copy, email file, disk, etc.)

Engineering Kit (E-Kit) designs for K-12 outreach

Select the one primary Strategic Priority this project addressed:
q Leadership X Education q Diversity q Visibility q Vitality

SWE Committees to which this report and deliverables would be of interest:

Expense

Proposed Cost

Actual Cost