Sports Engineering in Education: a methodology for educating engineers and promoting engineering careers

How can we attract students to study engineering and then retain them in the engineering profession, ensuring completion of training and registration as chartered engineers? Teaching engineering ideas through sports, seems one way to satisfy the requirement for schools to foreground engineering in a way likely to appeal to their students. It is able to link ´hard science´ with Design and Technology using material which students will find accessible. According to the international academic journal Sports Engineering the subject lies between classical engineering and sports science and is the application of engineering and science to sport. Recognising the attraction of sports to students Sports Engineering in Education (SEE) was set up in January 2001 with the support of the Science Enhancement Programme/ Gatsby Technical Education Project. The SEE project brief was to introduce and promote science, engineering, technology and sport to students in Key Stages 2-4 (with possible extension to other groups) using sports engineering.