An engineering and education interdisciplinary learning experience

In order to remain competitive as a nation and increase our technology capable workforce, it is important to motivate children at a young age towards science, mathematics, and engineering. One of the best ways to do this is through their teachers. However there is typically a large gap between engineering students and elementary education students. In order to maximize the impact teachers may have on children, this gap must be closed. In the fall of 2002, an interdisciplinary project was conducted between freshmen engineering students and senior EC-4 (Early Childhood through 4th grade) pre-service teachers at Tarleton State University. The main objective was for the engineering students to explain and demonstrate fundamental physics concepts to the education students, who then disseminated the activities to kindergarten teachers for use in their classrooms. For the engineering students, it was a chance to solidify their knowledge of fundamentals by having them explain concepts in general terms and relate them to common phenomena. It was also an exercise in effective communication with a non-technical audience. For the education students, it was exposure physics concepts which could be directly incorporated into fun, motivating, elementary school activities.