2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Almost twenty years ago, in an undergraduate-level Introduction to Biomedical Engineering elective, a group project was created which allowed an opportunity for students to delve deeply into an area of interest that was not covered in the class material. A second objective was to provide a forum for the students to hone their presentation and group interaction skills. The project integrated a high school outreach presentation and required the students to participate in problem-based learning, hands-on activities and challenged undergraduates to present highly technical material to an audience with little technical knowledge. Within a year, this project expanded to be included in a required junior level chemical engineering course.
Over the years, the project has expanded to include presentations to K-12 students, while allowing undergraduate chemical engineering students to serve as role models while they provide demonstrations, hands-on activities and teach fundamental STEM concepts. The undergraduate students are still required to determine the efficacy of their presentation, which has allowed them to practice their statistics skills. In addition, chemical engineering students are required to practice their presentation with their instructor, during which a wide variety of misconceptions have been uncovered. With the new changes to the ABET student outcomes to include ‘an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences’, this project provides this opportunity to our students. Fast forward almost twenty years – this project has impacted almost one-thousand undergraduate chemical engineering students and over 10,000 K-12 students.
As this is a ‘work in progress’ it is anticipated that audience members will be able to provide insight as to which features of this project can be transferable to their programs.