Work in progress - engaging future engineers by leveraging the past

The paper presents the work in progress to leverage the rich historical archives of General Electric´s (GE) science & technology to produce new educational materials; incorporating a wonderful series of 23 scientific comic books that GE produced between 1946 and 1959. The presentation will discuss how the physical artifacts and historical documents have been integrated with GE´s comics and other archival pieces to produce interactive learning modules that are initially being geared toward grade levels 4, 8, and 14. The developed materials are Internet accessible and will be made available for use at anytime, from anywhere. The paper describes the piloting of an educational prototype for students in grade 4 (electricity) and lower level undergraduate courses (engineering) - in an attempt to inspire students to pursue engineering degrees. The paper will describe how leveraging historical archives provides a context for integrating science and technology within the school, the home and the community. Schenectady City Schools (an inter-city district), Niskayuna Schools (a suburban district), Rensselaer (an engineering school) and the Schenectady Museum have worked together to engage and positively impact a diverse community of students. The initial outcomes will be presented in accordance with a goal to provide broad groups of students with the ability to access the materials at their own pace, thereby increasing engagement and enjoyment both in/out of class. The assessment results of the pilot will also be reviewed in correlation with efforts to help 4th grade students meet the rigorous NYS science standards. We will demonstrate how such comic books can be powerful education tools and reach across various populations -ultimately stimulating imaginations and overcoming the diminished attention spans associated with the current generation of students