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Conference Proceedings: The Business Case for Engineering Skills-based Volunteerism in K-12 Education

June 14, 2015 | Public Programs
This paper was presented at the 122nd ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in June 2015, by the Boeing Company, the University of Washington, College of Education LIFE Center, and the City University of Seattle. Abstract Skills-based volunteerism programs can provide technical employees effective and meaningful opportunities to utilize, develop, and transfer their skills while contributing to their companies’ community engagement objectives in K-12 education. While many companies encourage their employees to engage in education-related volunteerism, these efforts are often one-off events related to student outreach or recruiting, rather than opportunities for employees to utilize their skills to not only give back to community, but also develop professionally and personally. This study focuses on assessing the impact of a pilot skills-based volunteerism program on the skills and mindsets of professional engineers, who translate their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills in open-ended engineering design challenges that they subsequently teach to elementary students and their families in underserved, community-based out-of-school programs. This study suggests that community partners, engineers, and the sponsoring company each benefit from this skills-based volunteerism program: community partners directly gain access to working engineers and high-quality, real-world STEM content; engineers develop their communication, creativity, and leadership and mentoring skills, while also broadening their cultural awareness of and engagement with underserved communities; and sponsoring companies indirectly benefit from their engineers’ increased skills, networks, and engagement.

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    Principal Investigator
    Iridescent
  • Michael Richey
    Author
    The Boeing Company
  • Deepa Gupta
    Author
    The Boeing Company
  • Timathy Kieran O'Mahony
    Author
    University of Washington
  • Lauren Meyers
    Author
    City University of Seattle
  • Danielle LoVallo Vermeer
    Author
    The Boeing Company
  • Citation

    Resource Type: Reference Materials
    Discipline: Engineering | Physics
    Audience: Families | Educators/Teachers | Museum/ISE Professionals | Scientists
    Environment Type: Public Programs | Afterschool Programs | Public Events and Festivals
    Access and Inclusion: Low Socioeconomic Status

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