Youth and the Engineering Outreach Industry

Abstract This paper will look at the emerging industry associated with prepping elementary and middle school students for engineering careers. It chronicles the different organizations and programs that entice students interested to learn STEAM skills in a kinesthetic way. Engineering needs to constantly attract new talent, and whether it is robotics, aerospace, or civil engineering, there are programs to support the interests of youth considering engineering. Future engineers and their parents are anxious to find opportunities to increase STEAM skills. To this end, many families have chosen to seek out nontraditional educational opportunities, such as tutoring, homeschooling, summer camps, or supplementary educational programming. Parents want a solid basis of math and science for their children who express an interest in engineering and are willing to finance this extracurricular preparation. Although traditional schooling in the United States places a high importance upon STEAM, students need to firmly understand the basics of mathematics to advance to higher levels of study in these disciplines. Early intervention in addressing math and science inequities in education is crucial. Not all nascent engineers have the good fortune to partake in engineering summer camps and extracurricular programs. Various engineering-centric programs and student competitions are gaining prominence, making the field of engineering an even more popular field to pursue. For engineering schools (and eventual future employers) to attract the most committed talent, young students need to be prepared with soft and hard skills. Competition for placement at higher education institutions prompts parents to invest in programming to strengthen their student's exposure to engineering concepts. Online educational organizations such as Synthesis, Astra Nova, Athena's, Outschool, Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth, Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development, Varsity Tutors, Virtual Homeschooling Group, and online homeschool co-operatives try to create learning opportunities that teach, while creating cohorts for students from all over the world. While this is a profitable market, it is not always diverse and available to those in struggling economic brackets. The obvious divide of affordability and availability to some more expensive educational opportunities leaves out many young worthy students from gaining access, thereby losing out on exposure to engineering. Addressing inequities in elementary STEAM education is a first important step in leveling the playing field for all students to excel. Furthermore, many academically gifted students in traditional educational settings are not challenged or adequately accelerated to suit their abilities. The active learning models of some online educational programs allow for a kinesthetic and collaborative learning environment. Project-based homeschooling models also tailor educational opportunities to aptitude. Organizations such as the Invention Convention, Imagination Destination, and Future Engineers try to provide egalitarian access to engineering challenges. An unlikely assistant in helping to diversify the engineering field is You Tube. The current generation of students (roughly in the age group of 6-18) are assigning star power to a growing legion of STEAM stars. Fortunately, education entertainment personalities, such as Mark Robert, Janet Ivey, Steve Sherman, Hip Hop MD (Maynard Okereke), Tom Stanton, and Real Engineering have provided access to engineering principles for all students, thus democratizing it for young students. In conclusion, I want to discuss how the rise in accessibility to engineering programming for young students is good for the profession and will ultimately help in strengthening and diversifying the field. Supplementing and disrupting the traditional class-based methods of learning engineering principles helps to democratize the discipline and attract new problem solvers.