New Engineering Courses Challenging Foxborough High School Students

The following was submitted by Foxborough Assistant Superintendent Amy Berdos part of the Foxborough School Committee Teaching and Learning Highlight Series.

At the February 12, 2015 School Committee meeting the Foxborough High School Engineer Your World course was featured as the Teaching and Learning Highlight. Engineer Your World, is an innovative high school engineering curriculum created at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. The one-year course was designed to provide accessible, high-quality engineering education and better prepare U.S. students in STEM fields. Foxborough High School is currently running two sections of the course with math teacher Mr. Patrick Nash. Mr. Nash along with four of his forty-eight students, Kurt Dudek, Erika Snow, Cam Seeley and Samantha Geary were present to share all of the details of the new course and their experience thus far.

The curriculum was created by engineering faculty, professional engineers, K-12 teachers and curriculum experts, and NASA engineers. It is one that engages student in hands-on project based experiences that focus on real-world challenges. The year-long curriculum provides an opportunity for students to engage in units covering all areas of engineering including systems, mechanical, chemical, civil and electrical engineering projects. The students and their teacher compared the strength of the curriculum to its focus on teamwork and collaboration.

Mr. Nash explained to the committee that in preparation for teaching the rigorous curriculum he had to go to the University of Texas for two weeks during the summer and participate in an intensive training in order to instruct the course at Foxborough High School. During the two week training he learned the entire curriculum through hands-on projects that his students would eventually experience. Mr. Nash explained that after returning from the summer training he had and continues to have access to on-going support through instructional coaches and monthly video conferences with fellow teachers.

The four FHS engineering students representing their classmates described how they work together in teams where they learn how to manage their projects from start to finish. This includes designing, testing, analyzing, and refining their project before ending up with their final solution to the project challenge. Engineering students were eager to share some of the examples of the projects they have been working on to date. Through the discovering design unit, they designed a pinhole camera for people with disabilities. Cam and Samantha described how building a light tight box was a lengthy process. Cam shared that during the preliminary trials their group tested different products and found that a paint can worked best. Samantha concurred about the lengthy processing adding,

“We had to figure things like exposure time.” Kurt and Erika described a recent civil engineering project their team worked on where they had to build a model. Their focus was on how well the building could withstand an earthquake while calculating damage and reducing the effect of the earthquake. “We tried different methods and on the third build of the project we were successful.” The two described the restraints they were given in the design challenge which included height, size and cost of the building. The cost restraint was the most challenging they explained.

When asked about some of the life lessons learned, “it’s not about what I want, it’s about my customer,” stated Kurt. He went on to say that when you go to build a project, you can’t just build it and you realize that there is a lot of writing, planning and group work involved. “You learn how to effectively work with group members without offending anyone.”

Mr. Nash and his students agreed that the hands-on project based designs are rigorous, engaging and provides for a great amount of learning. In closing Cam shared that he didn’t know what to expect in the course, but knew he wanted to go into engineering. The engineering course along with field trips like the one to Schneider Electric has provided real-world experiences and has been great exposure to the field of engineering. Samantha agreed sharing she had always had the thought to be an engineer and the course has allowed her to see the differences among the types of engineering opportunities. Mr. Nash concludes that he is learning as much from the students as they are learning from him!