Increasing 11th grader´s interest in STEM majors via a NAE Grand Challenge: Securing cyberspace-themed project

This paper will explore a project associated with the National Science Foundation STEM GK-12 Program at Drexel University titled "Catalyzing STEM Education via the NAE Grand Challenges" (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org) that serves to address the need for more STEM educated workers. Specifically, the Drexel NSF STEM GK-12 program pairs ten College of Engineering graduate students (Fellows) with ten School District of Philadelphia high school teachers to help introduce engineering concepts to high school students through the context of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges. This work in progress explores a high school project facilitated by a fellow/teacher partnership at the Philadelphia High School for Girls, an all-girls urban school. There are about 70 general education 11th grade students in environmental science classes participating in this project. The goal of the project is to increase awareness and interest for STEM fields in the students as well as increase awareness of privacy issues relating to electronic media/devices.