Engineering "Educator" Degree Programs

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by ebarker

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 ?

.

I'm doing something very similar this fall with Georgia Tech and 1648's high school, where I will be a robotics coach/teaching assistant and be paid with a stipend. I'd definitely be interested in something like this in the future.

I feel like it would be beneficial to have some experience in industry before pursuing an education degree. While I've considered teaching in engineering as a potential career, the experience I get in industry will only build my base of knowledge to teach from. Perhaps this program could be a master's-degree program for the best effect?