Engineering "Educator" Degree Programs

[ebarker]

I need your opinion, please.

We are working on an initiative to create a B.S. in Engineering Education.

This degree is the 1st half of a generalized engineering degree, plus the education courses needed to be a teacher.

The degree has an intensive junior level class, similar to MIT 2.007, which is the course that FIRST was designed from.

Restated, students will have a full semester course in product design / development, with the goal of preparing teachers to become effective FIRST teachers / mentors.

The second initiative we are working on is developing the concept of a 'head coach' teacher model, similar to high school football. The high school would have a full-time teacher that spent maybe 1/2 time teaching formal classes, and 1/2 time on robotics and other things, after school. Just like your high school football coach.

Here is my question. How many students that participate in FIRST would elect to do robotics as a career, as a high school teacher, if a) you could get a high quality engineering educator degree, and b) you could work in a 'head-coach' environment where the school system formally supported your work and team ?

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[Joe G.]

Not a student anymore, but I absolutely would. The fact that opportunities to do so are so rare that it seems unreachable is extremely frustrating.

[Govind Girish]

I am currently still a student (going to be a senior). I myself and several other student leads on my team have expressed a solid interest in a program like this. Most of the coaches or mentors we've seen from other teams are ex-sports coaches or ex-science/math teachers.

The problem many of us face is choosing between education and engineering. As you probably guessed, most of us choose engineering because there aren't many options for combining the two fields. This is definitely something I know we would be interested in.

[Jamie Kalb]

I’d do it in a second. Teaching and engineering are my dual passions in life, and I would jump at a chance to combine the two as a career.

[Tim Sharp]

That sounds like a great idea. It's very similar to what I do now with a math certification.
Have you checked with your state Board of Ed about creating an engineering certification?

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by Tim Sharp

That sounds like a great idea. It's very similar to what I do now with a math certification.
Have you checked with your state Board of Ed about creating an engineering certification?

I work for a large university, one of the largest in the state, and we are the largest producers of teachers. We also now have a college of engineering and mechatronics. To answer your question yes, I am very involved with the various state entities.

The intent is to deliver multiple pathways to get into education. The most interesting is a student entering college as a freshman with the intent of becoming an engineering education teacher. It is optimized to create teachers that can do things like FRC and other programs with high performance. Other options include training and certification for existing teachers and existing engineers. I think the best and most committed teachers will be graduates of high school robotics programs.

What I'm asking here and the original intent of this thread is to gauge interest and solicit commentary from the CD community, about becoming a teacher.

Thank you all in for your comments.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ebarker

What I'm asking here and the original intent of this thread is to gauge interest and solicit commentary from the CD community, about becoming a teacher.

Speaking for my high school senior self some years back: 50-50 chance I'd have been interested.

Speaking today: Chances are much higher...

[sanddrag]

This is a great idea. I applaud your efforts.

[wilsonmw04]

What would this degree license the person to teach? How many part time teacher/part time coaches are there in your state?

I guess it boils down to: Is there a need for this? what does this do that your typical CTE teacher can't cover already?

[waialua359]

I had a chance to talk extensively with Ed at the FRC World Championships 2 months ago. I am absolutely impressed with the vision and efforts he has put in towards Engineering Education. Its only a matter of time before his program, Team 1311 win the CCA.
As an educator with an engineering degree much like David from 696, we are in a field where more and more engineers are becoming educators. I've seen many professionals try to do career changes at our school, even one that had his PhD this past year. They struggled mightily for 3 main reasons.
One, they didnt understand how to work within our State DOE system, a compliance based one where buying a single pencil can seem like walking a mile.
Two, they knew their content, but couldnt effectively translate it to students in the classroom because of a lack of teaching pedagogy.
Three, they needed help on classroom management skills, where the problem is compounded by lack of funding, overcrowded classrooms, and lack of facilities.

Every team needs engineers and educators. How powerful would it be if you had an Engineering Educator?

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

What would this degree license the person to teach? How many part time teacher/part time coaches are there in your state?

I guess it boils down to: Is there a need for this? what does this do that your typical CTE teacher can't cover already?

Here's the biggest problem that we have in our State and I'll assume its the same elsewhere in many parts of the country: Finding good CTE teachers that are qualified.
The CTE pipeline has been dwindling down in recent years in our State. Our Auto program died several years ago and our Woodshop class has a teacher who isnt fully qualified to do the job.
The community colleges now offer CTE Alternative certification programs, but they have a hard time getting people to change careers because of pay. Many tradesmen have no degrees and our State isnt willing to pay them more than an entry level teacher's salary because of it. Who's going to want to take a pay cut to start teaching? If I take Woodshop, I want someone who has experience in the real world to teach the class.

1. Why do we tell our best Math students to become Accountants or Engineers? Shouldnt the best Math student major in education where the brightest teach our future generations?
2. In our very own FRC program, we encourage our students to become engineers and not educators.

I believe that by offering Engineering education, you attract students who are smart enough to become engineers, instead make a career of teaching future generations of students.

[jwfoss]

Ed, you may want to look into similar programs from other areas. When I was considering my college selections I noted that Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) has a well developed and pretty well know Technology and Engineering Education degree program.

[scottandme]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

Ed, you may want to look into similar programs from other areas. When I was considering my college selections I noted that Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) has a well developed and pretty well know Technology and Engineering Education degree program.

What Justin said...

Here's a short list from the national organization...
http://www.iteea.org/Resources/institutionalmembers.htm

Programs just like this already exist. I graduated with a BS in Technology/Engineering Education. Obviously each state is slightly different, and might have different names for the certificate, but the framework is already there. Most of the schools listed also have Master's degree programs (MEd) that culminate in a teaching certificate.

It looks like University of Georgia already offers this program, are you working with a different institution? Looks like Savannah State University also offers an undergrad degree.

http://teched.uga.edu/

Googling for your state's specifics would be a good place to start for all the aspiring teachers in this thread.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by scottandme

What Justin said...

Here's a short list from the national organization...
http://www.iteea.org/Resources/institutionalmembers.htm

Programs just like this already exist. I graduated with a BS in Technology/Engineering Education. Obviously each state is slightly different, and might have different names for the certificate, but the framework is already there. Most of the schools listed also have Master's degree programs (MEd) that culminate in a teaching certificate.

It looks like University of Georgia already offers this program, are you working with a different institution? Looks like Savannah State University also offers an undergrad degree.

http://teched.uga.edu/

Googling for your state's specifics would be a good place to start for all the aspiring teachers in this thread.

This thread caught my attention with the OP's emphasis on integrated hand-on education. Without calling out any school specifically, I've been searching for an MS that really emphasizes transitioning practical skill sets and integrating more 'head coach' learning throughout the 1-2 years. That would push it up my list very quickly, though I know there are some very, very good MEds out there (I've been looking at JHU). The desire for this kind of alternative MEd may be a personal bias, as I've had some STEM teachers that really lacked in integration despite STEM BSs and education MSs.


As to the already existent ability to add teacher education on top of an engineering BS, yes, of course we can. (It's a free country, and I'm seriously examining it.) But considering the point of this is to up the number of engineering teachers, I'd think the push would be less about what's possible and more about what's actively advertised as a potential audience/degree option.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

Ed, you may want to look into similar programs from other areas. When I was considering my college selections I noted that Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) has a well developed and pretty well know Technology and Engineering Education degree program.

Prior to getting into the FIRST Robotics program back in 1999, we were introduced to it primarily because we were successful in racing electric cars (1995-2009). As I clicked on the link, I cant help but remember racing against a few Connecticut schools....i.e. Farmington HS? in Louden, NH 7-8 years ago.

I need to dig up old pictures. For awhile, we did both programs and decided to end our EV program once we got into VEX Robotics.

Glenn