Note: Engineers Week 2008 is Feb. 17-23. This year's theme is "Engineers Make a World of Difference."
Newswise — For a generation so immersed in technology, surprisingly few of today's high school students are interested in studying engineering in college. But Ralph Flori, associate professor of interdisciplinary engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), hopes to reverse this trend.
Flori, director of Project Lead the Way for the state of Missouri, is working with high schools and middle schools throughout the state to promote the study of engineering at the college level. Only five percent of the nation's college-bound high school graduates express an interest in an engineering degree, according to data from ACT, the college testing organization.
As Missouri's lead affiliate for Project Lead the Way, Missouri S&T works with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to coordinate the introduction of the program's four-year sequence of courses to schools in the state. Over the past two summers, Flori and his colleagues at Missouri S&T trained dozens of high school and middle school instructors in the curriculum. Flori expects to train more than 80 again this summer.
More than 100 Missouri high schools and middle schools are involved in Project Lead the Way, reaching more than 5,000 potential future engineers, Flori says.
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