The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

What’s it like to engineer roadways and the physical infrastructure of society? Guest Jerel Rackley, P.E., explains. Jerel is a civil engineer with the design and consulting firm Atkins, and in his fourteen years of experience in the field, he has seen what it takes to succeed. Hear him talk about taking the Professional Engineer (P.E.) exam, working with clients, the importance of people skills,...

How do you make an engineer? Guest engineer Leyla Yilan shares her thoughts. Leyla is an electrical and computer engineer at chip-maker AMD, as well as a proud parent of two daughters. She tells her story of how she got into the field, explaining the importance of family and friends in pivoting her toward engineering. Then she talks about how she tries to expose her kids to different fields like s...

Mechanical engineer and PhD student Sadhan Sathyaseelan cohosts with engineer-entrepreneur Pius Wong in today’s episode. We talk about Sadhan’s experience learning that engineering students want to be business leaders, and we brainstorm ideas for teaching entrepreneurship in schools. We also discuss our favorite entrepreneurs and learn about new trends to teach entrepreneurship as part of engineer...

Guest mechanical engineer Beau Trifiro talks about his business in skateboard design, fabrication, and education. Based in San Diego, Open Source Skateboards not only builds custom skateboards, it also teaches kids in middle school and high school how to design and build their own boards. Beau talks about teaching hands-on projects, how he deals with kids making mistakes, and why he thinks studyin...

How does China prepare students for careers in computer science and related fields, compared to the USA? Hear from a Chinese student of computer science and mathematics who is studying in Texas for his undergraduate degree. He talks about the notorious Chinese college entrance exams, similarities between math and computer science, perceptions of an American education and American companies among C...

Founding an education business comes with challenges and rewards, far beyond the financials. Guest EJ Zain talks about this first-hand. EJ founded the startup Maker Kids Lab, LLC, in Austin, Texas. Her very new startup runs after-school programs for middle schoolers in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). In her lessons, Zain and her team of helper-teachers guide students of di...

Some students struggle with trauma, mental health, mental disabilities, and negative peers and adults; and yet, with the right decisions and the right help, they still will become successful engineers. Hector is a computer engineer who has such a story. Although engineering and computers interested him early on, he faced several major obstacles on his path to getting an engineering degree. Hector...

Dr. Renata Revelo talks about the importance of identity when educating and retaining engineers. Dr. Revelo is an electrical engineer, a professor, and a researcher in engineering education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She’s studied Latina/Latino students who participated in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) during their education, and she found that the organizati...

Start with what kids already know, when teaching them engineering. Have them work in their community. Guest Dr. Alex Mejia says you should tap into students’ existing “funds of knowledge” to raise engineering students’ achievement. He’s done research on this pedagogical style with Latino and Latina students, as a professor of engineering in San Angelo State University and soon-to-be professor at t...

What are the best movies and TV shows in entertainment for inspiring your thinking in engineering? Rachel, Sadhan, and Pius talk about their top suggestions, and they discuss how they affect perceptions of engineering. Mentioned in this episode: • Star Trek Voyager (TV show): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112178/ • The Matrix (film): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ • Hidden Figures (film): htt...

English teacher and author Roxanna Elden talks about her tips for new teachers, how to form your personal Board of Advisors as a teacher, how to teach writing in any classroom, and more, in this discussion. She draws on her research talking to many other new teachers, as well as her own experience, to share advice. Mentioned in this episode: • Roxanna Elden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoxannaE...

What makes a good teacher for future engineers? In honor of National Teacher Appreciation Week, we ask five practicing engineers about their favorite teachers growing up. The engineers come from different disciplines, and they all share the best qualities of the teachers who made an impact on them. Mentioned in this episode: • National Teacher Appreciation Week at the National PTA: http://www.pta....

We talk strategies for teaching computer science (CS), with Dr. Cynthia Taylor, a computer science professor at The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Cynthia does research on effective CS education pedagogy, which includes active learning in the classroom. She talks about her research, how to handle not knowing all of CS when you’re teaching CS, the imbalance of experience in students’ expe...

How do you teach ethics to engineering students? Guests Dr. Beccy Hambright and Richard Burgess talk about their experience tackling that question, particularly when it comes to students in K-12. They share their history at the Texas Tech University College of Engineering, where they supported students and teachers in engineering and engineering ethics. Hambright ran the Texas STEM Center until 20...

Studying engineering might help you in your future career, especially if that future is in the Air Force. Today’s guest is a pilot who studied aerospace engineering for an undergraduate degree, and he explains how that education is still helping him now even as he learns to fly jets. He also gives ideas for what motivates students to learn about aerospace engineering, even if the content can somet...

How can we harness the power of games for education? In Part 1 of the episode, the podcast explores how the PAX South 2017 gaming conference inspired ideas in better engineering education. In Part 2, we hear from two team members of TEALS, a group supported by Microsoft Philanthropies that was also at PAX. TEALS has been around since 2009, matching volunteer CS professionals with K-12 teachers in...

The SXSW Education conference and festival this year highlighted equity, fairness, and justice as a major theme. How does this apply to engineering and computer science education? This episode explores the views of various speakers and attendees at SXSW, starting with Dr. Chris Emdin, who emphasized that education is a civil rights issue. Then it looks at the relevant views of college students, ed...

Robots, role models, rap, and more all stood out at the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festival. Pius highlights products, programs, and ideas at SXSW that might especially interest engineering educators. Mentioned in this episode: • SXSW Edu: http://sxswedu.com/ • WE: https://www.we.org/ • AP WE (CS + service learning): https://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/initiatives/ap-we-servic...

How can we deal with data better? How can we teach kids to deal with data better? Sarah Morris from the nonprofit Nuclear Learning Network has some answers. She educates students and the general population on better data visualization, or dataviz, and how to use modern tools for dataviz. Related to this episode: • The Nucleus Learning Network: http://www.nucleuslearningnetwork.org/ • Art Science G...

Pius reviews with Rachel five mobile apps related to engineering education, available on Android and iOS. A ten-year-old guest reviewer also gives her thoughts on some of the games, to get a third perspective. The games were pulled from the top-ranking engineering-themed games listed in app stores as of the beginning of 2017. Related to this episode: • Brain It On!: http://brainitongame.com/ • Gea...

Dr. Jenni Buckley and Dr. Amy Trauth-Nare from the University of Delaware talk about Orthopaedics in Action (OIA), their curriculum in biomechanics and engineering design for middle school and high school students. They used their respective expertise in mechanical engineering and K-12 education to create the hands-on OIA lessons, which originated from an initiative to attract more women into orth...

Pius, Rachel, and Sadhan reunite to talk about big news in engineering education from 2016 (Part 1: 00m20s), followed by a politically flavored discussion about 2017 (Part 2: 15m20s). If you liked Season 1 and want to help keep Season 2 afloat, please consider pledging a monthly contribution at my new Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You’ll be helping me continue to talk to awesome...

In the big push for more engineers today, can we get them from autistic students? Research has shown that college students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) go into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields more than students without ASD. We speak with one of the researchers who studied this phenomenon, Dr. Jennifer Yu of SRI International (Part 1 @ 01:00), and we also discuss com...

Hear from two nonprofit organizations trying to provide girls with more education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In Part 1 (start @ 00:59), we visit Girlstart, a Texas-based nonprofit that reaches thousands of girls from 4th grade up to junior high with hands-on programs. Executive Director Tamara Hudgins shares what it’s like to develop the program over the past years and i...

Step into the classroom of 16-year veteran CAD teacher Audrea Moyers. Audrea also teaches engineering design, and she talks about how the pathway of CAD and engineering classes at her school link up. What are her thoughts on the different CAD packages out there? How do you integrate more design into a CAD class, and vice-versa? Where do you teach drawing by hand? Hear about all this and more in th...