Engaging K-12 students and teachers using competitive interactive design

The demand for qualified engineering professionals is steadily increasing, but the number of adequately prepared entering freshmen has not kept pace with this demand. This has caused a rising interest in outreach activities that inform K-12 educators about the engineering profession and stimulate or encourage precollege students to pursue engineering careers. The University of Texas at Tyler sponsored an interactive design activity that engaged both pre-college students and their faculty sponsors. The "Scrap-Pile Challenge" was loosely based on the "Junkyard Wars" television series broadcast on the TLC network. Senior engineering students assumed the roles of experts in a design-build-test competition. Engineering faculty assisted the K-12 faculty sponsors to create a parallel design. This paper presents the underlying motivation for this approach to K-12 outreach. In addition, details of the "Scrap-Pile Challenge" activity, a synopsis of the assessment survey and a look at the future for this approach are presented.