Increasing engineering awareness through targeted outreach

New Zealand, similarly to many countries, is facing declining enrolments in engineering tertiary study. Students and even their teachers are surprisingly ignorant about engineering study and prospective careers, especially in the more modern engineering disciplines. This paper outlines outreach activities targeted at two levels of secondary school students as well as their teachers and their careers advisors. Students are engaged in the construction of a multi-purpose electronic board which they retain afterwards. Teachers participate in the same activity and are additionally provided with resources to take back into their classrooms to augment the coverage of the relevant curriculum. The response to these activities and the resultant increased desire to consider tertiary engineering study has been exceptionally encouraging.