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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