NSF Awards: 1323230
The Engineering Ambassadors Network is a diverse group of engineering students united under one goal: changing the way people talk about engineering. Composed of students from 29 universities around the world, the Engineering Ambassadors Network is committed to training students in advanced communication and leadership techniques so that they can help future generations answer the burning question: "What does an engineer do?"
Michael Alley
Thank you for viewing our film. The Engineering Ambassadors Network not only communicates messages of NAE's Changing the Conversation to more than 40,000 K-12 students each year, but helps the more than 500 participating Engineering Ambassadors grow as professionals. In particular, the Ambassadors learn cutting-edge techniques for presenting engineering to a wide range of audiences and then give those presentations in K-12 classrooms across the U.S.
Joanna Garner
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Welcome to our presentation! We hope that you will join the conversation. We are especially interested in hearing from current and former EAs, and our amazing alumni! We would love to hear how being an EA has impacted you. We would also welcome hearing from teachers or students who have had a visit from Engineering Ambassadors. What did you learn about? How did it impact you?
Jay Labov
Thank you for very clearly laying out the problem with your video! For those who may be thinking about having their institutions participate, could you please provide additional information about:
- What the EAs actually do when they engage with younger students?
- Where do these interactions take place? In schools? Informal learning environments?
- What kind of background do the EAs have? For example, are they upper-level engineering students? Or do first year engineering students also participate?
- What kinds of commitment (e.g., financial, space, commitment of faculty sponsors, etc.) are required for engineering programs to join the EA movement?
-To date, what kinds of evidence has the EA program collected to examine the benefits to students (both EAs and the younger students with whom the work) as well as program evaluation data?
Thank you again for making this community better aware of this initiative!
Lori Miraldi
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Jay, Thank you for the questions!
What the EAs actually do when they engage with younger students?
Where do these interactions take place? In schools? Informal learning environments?
What kind of background do the EAs have? For example, are they upper-level engineering students? Or do first year engineering students also participate?
What kinds of commitment (e.g., financial, space, commitment of faculty sponsors, etc.) are required for engineering programs to join the EA movement?
To date, what kinds of evidence has the EA program collected to examine the benefits to students (both EAs and the younger students with whom the work) as well as program evaluation data?
Thank you for this opportunity to showcase this program that we love so much!
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Hi Jay,
Thank you for visiting our presentation. To address your question about evidence of having an impact, we have found that individual chapters across the country have conducted their own data collection efforts and have found evidence that K-12 students increase their understanding of engineering and the work of engineers. Representatives from the University of Nebraska Engineering Ambassadors will be presenting such work at ASEE.
At the network level, our program evaluation data has been focused on assessing the impact of participation on the undergraduate ambassadors themselves. To do so, we have used interview and survey methods. Some highlights from this work are that:
(1) the EA training, which includes specific training in the Assertion Evidence presentation style, increases students' confidence to present technical information and allows them to feel well prepared to give outreach talks into which the NAE Changing the Conversation messages are embedded;
(2) participating as an EA facilitates the formulation of a mature professional identity as an engineer and as a presenter, which seems to promote confidence to persist in their degree program and provide a mechanism for integrating personal and career goals;
(3) many of the students who participate as an EA report having strong, socially minded career goals as a reason for entering engineering as a field. Not only do they aspire to careers in which they can use engineering to make a difference in the world, but they embrace the Changing the Conversation messages and are highly motivated to reach out to the next generation of students with these messages;
(4) the EA program provides networking and social support for undergraduate engineering students, particularly those from historically underrepresented groups;
(5) many of the EAs we have interviewed report that they have gained valuable skills that will serve them in their careers.
I hope that this is helpful!
Jay Labov
Lori and Joanna,
Thank you very much for these very detailed responses. I found them very helpful and think that the level of detail provided here will help many other viewers of your video realize that it will be possible for them and the organizations with which they're associated to become involved. This looks like a really terrific program!
Jay
Karen Drevo
We LOVE having the Engineering Ambassadors come to our classrooms! It's true that students don't know what engineering is, and how important it is for our society in so many ways. The students love the activities, and as I teacher, I always learn something too. It's a fantastic program. Thank you!!
Joanna Garner
Lori Miraldi
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Karen! I'm so glad that you have had a positive experience with the Engineering Ambassadors. The EAs get as much out of the interactions in the classroom as the students do. They love sharing their passion for engineering and helping impact these young lives re-invigorates their studies. Thank you for supporting our program!
Matt Krott
As someone who was an Engineering Ambassador for 3 years at Penn State, I found the experience to be extremely impactful and rewarding. Even today, I still use many of the lessons about developing strong presentations and communicating ideas to general audiences. These Ambassadors are doing important work to create a more diverse group of future engineers!
Joanna Garner
Danielle Watt
Lori Miraldi
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Matt, thank you for your comment!
Michael Briscoe
What an interesting idea! I am interested in using this with our professional society, the American Society of Naval Engineers. We have college-aged students giving presentations at most of our events, so I am looking for some materials that I can use to help them share their passion to the K-12 audience.
I am on your Resources page, and was hoping you could direct me to the resources that help EAs most quickly understand how to answer this burning question. Do the examples work best? Or, do you have resources that help them organize their ideas?
Also, if you are interested in connecting with our student chapters, you can email me any time.
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Michael. I have found that the EAs connect best with the K-12 students when they talk about their own passions and experiences. As they share their journey in engineering, what inspires them to study engineering, and what they hope to do with their degrees, the young students become engaged and interested.
We do a "Careers Presentation" in many K-12 schools. This presentations gives an overview of all the different disciplines within engineering along with examples of those disciplines do in the workplace. We try to pick examples that will peak their interest. For example, a popular one is pointing out that industrial engineers helped to design the FastPass system at Disney World!
We also try to point out what types of engineers are involved in the concepts that are using in the Outreach Presentations. For example, if they are talking about Roller Coasters, the EAs will point out that mechanical engineers tend to focus on the moving parts of the coaster, civil engineers can contribute to the supporting structure of the coaster, computer scientist work with the controls that ensure the cars are spaced out on the track safely, etc.
By exposing the students to the variety of career paths and jobs that engineers can do and giving them concrete examples of what engineers can do, young students are better able to imagine themselves in these roles. Our goal is to open their minds to reality that engineers impact the world around them in rich and exciting ways. We want to help these students potentially see themselves in these roles.
We do help them craft these messages. We give the EA communication training to be able to craft and organize an effective presentation. The modules on our resources page give a glimpse into this training: http://www.engineeringambassadors.com/resources...
In addition, we rely heavily on the Assertion-Evidence Approach to presentations: https://www.assertion-evidence.com
This approach to presentations is effective at enhancing audience understanding and retention of information. In addition to benefitting the audience, the A-E approach enhances the focus and delivery of a presentation.
Let me know if I answered your questions or if I can provide additional information.
Danielle Watt
Director of Education, Outreach, & Diversity
Thank you for sharing your project and informing the community about this field! I also have a question regarding the impact on the participants (students and EAs) after the program so I will wait for the additional post but nice feedback from Matt, former EA.
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Hi Danielle,
I posted a brief overview of some findings in the thread above. Please let me know if you have difficulty locating the post.
Joanna
Whitney Erby
Doctoral Student
Great project! I am wondering how the EAs are recruited and how do you keep them engaged? The video says that you are changing the conversation around stereotypes. How do you train students to effectively discuss stereotypes and how do you help them facilitate a different conversation around them?
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Whitney, thank you for your questions! The recruitment and engagement varies across universities. I can speak to Penn State's program. We recruit through word-of-mouth, social media, campus advertising, and through short promo presentations in certain classes (e.g., first-year seminar, engineering design, technical speaking). Students fill out an online application that includes an prompt for a short essay. From that pool, we choose a group to interview in-person. Our in-person interviews are 15 minutes. We then choose our new cohort based on their application and interview. Although I have the final say, I do involve my EAs through that entire process.
I set an expectation of engagement from the start. I give them a realistic estimate of the hours they should expect to commit each semester. I ask them to consider their other commitments and be realistic about what they can do before accepting membership. Although this is not the case at all programs, the Penn State EAs receive a financial award for active participation. That being said, the vast majority of them simply love to do the work involved and would do it without financial compensation. This quickly becomes one of their favorite groups to be a part of. In addition, we offer a variety of professional development opportunities through the program. These opportunities often help them prepare for the workforce and network with companies.
In terms of stereotypes, the first EA program was developed with the goal of increasing the number of women in Mechanical Engineering. This focus on women has remained strong. In many of our EA programs, women are disproportionately represented compared to the numbers of women in engineering (Penn State's EA program is 68% women). This is intentional. We want girls in K-12 classrooms to see themselves in these EA women and entertain the idea that engineering might be a good path for them. Some programs focus more heavily on educational equity across other under-represented groups. Tufts University is a great example of this. They have a strong mission to bring more and more young students of color into the STEM fields. It's important for the EAs increase their own awareness and understanding of these issues so they can more effectively empathize and reach young students who may be impacted by educational inequity. This is an opportunity for growth in my program, I am looking to experts on my campus to help facilitate these conversations with my EAs in the coming year.
Debora Liberi
Thank you Joanna and Lori. I really like the concept of Engineering Ambassadors. It addresses a real need in an interactive way. How is this funded?
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Debora, thank you for your question. The EA programs vary greatly in size and structure. Some programs have funding through their college or department. Other programs are funded through corporate sponsorships. Some are a combination of the two. Our program at Penn State started with some initial funding from the college and then developed enough corporate sponsorship funds over the years to be self-sustaining.
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Debora,
Thank you for your question. As Lori stated, programs have various sources of funding and sponsorship. I will just add that we were very fortunate to receive funding through NSF to be able to provide training events for ambassadors at multiple sites across the country. This allowed new EA chapters to form and strengthened the cohorts within existing programs. In many cases, these conferences brought multiple schools together, which provided valuable networking and sharing opportunities across programs.
Abigail Haworth
I am an undergraduate Biological Systems Engineering student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I am so excited to be a part of this organization next year! Going through training I was extremely impressed by the effective presentation style and engaging themes the Ambassadors use. The message that Ambassadors have to share can really make a difference for the young people of today.
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Abigail! We're so thrilled to have you as a new EA! The University of Nebraska has such a wonderful EA program and I know the veteran EAs in your program will be great mentors. In addition to Joanna's question below about what topics are messages are most engaging to students, what attracted you to join this group? What do you hope to gain by being part of the EA program?
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Hi Abigail,
Thank you for your post! I am so pleased to welcome you as an Engineering Ambassador! I'm glad you found the training to be helpful. I am curious as to the topics or messages that you think will be most engaging to young students?
Emma Brimdyr
I'm a undergraduate studying Mechanical Engineering and Society, Technology and Policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and I have been a part of this or organization for 2 years! It's one of my favorite school activities because I get to engage with the younger generation. We mostly do outreach to students in 4th-8th grade, and it's really great watching the kids come alive during the activities. While in the beginning they can be hesitant to try something new, by the end they are passionately sharing ideas and trying new things and become absorbed with the activity challenge. My favorite is watching teachers become engaged as well, and asking to try out the challenge and then competing with the kids (often times the kids end up winning!). The students often ask a lot of follow up engineering questions to our presentation, and sometimes ask about different majors they could possibly go into,and this is another one of my favorite parts since I know I wouldn't have gone into engineering if someone hadn't convinced me that engineering was more than just building things mechanically. I think that is one of the best parts about this organization, is that it helps spread the word that engineering is more than we originally think it is. Many of the student's have either gone through the program the year before, or other students at their school have gone through the program before, so gossip often goes around how coming to an EA presentation is one of the best days of the year.
Lori Miraldi
Director of the Engineering Ambassadors Program and Student Engagement Initiatives
Hi Emma! Thank you for sharing your experiences as an EA! It is so rewarding to see the kids engaged in these activities. In addition, I know from seeing my own EAs in action that one of the most impactful experiences for the K-12 students and getting to interact with you and your fellow EAs. By having the opportunity to interact with you one-on-one, their understanding of what an engineering is expands and they can often see themselves in that role. Thank you for the time, effort, and passion you have put into your EA program. You are changing young lives!
Joanna Garner
Executive Director
Hi everyone,
Thank you for visiting our page, joining the conversation, and reading and adding to our discussion thread. If you would like more information about the Engineering Ambassadors Network, please visit www.engineeringambassadors.com. There you will find links to training and other resources, as well as a list of our current member institutions. Feel free to contact any of us listed here to learn more!
Joanna
Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.