ERC Expands Creative Engineering Design Project to Utah and Texas
Outcome/Accomplishment
The NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE), headquartered at Utah State University, has expanded its team-based high school engineering course covering electric vehicles and environmental justice to schools in Utah and Texas.
Impact/Benefits
The two-year curriculum of Creative Engineering Design challenges 9th and 10th graders, largely from underserved and underrepresented communities, with engineering projects that connect to everyday applications. Students learn about the potential for vehicle electrification to solve air quality issues and climate change that disproportionately affect their communities.
Explanation/Background
The course was piloted during the 2021-2022 school year at two public high schools in Denver, Colorado, in partnership with the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Integrated Teaching and Learning Program (ITLP), based in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. For the 2022-23 school year, the course expanded to two additional Denver high schools and two other ASPIRE-partnering high schools: El Paso Leadership Academy in El Paso, Texas, and InTech Collegiate Academy in Logan, Utah.
Course content includes ArcGIS StoryMaps that teach students about how emissions impact public health and help them compare and contrast electric vehicles with internal combustion engine vehicles. The final project is a team electric vehicle design challenge.
Course materials will be published on the TeachEngineering digital library.
Location
Logan, Utahwebsite
Start Year
Energy and Sustainability
Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure
Lead Institution
Core Partners
Fact Sheet
Outcome/Accomplishment
The NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE), headquartered at Utah State University, has expanded its team-based high school engineering course covering electric vehicles and environmental justice to schools in Utah and Texas.
Location
Logan, Utahwebsite
Start Year
Energy and Sustainability
Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure
Lead Institution
Core Partners
Fact Sheet
Impact/benefits
The two-year curriculum of Creative Engineering Design challenges 9th and 10th graders, largely from underserved and underrepresented communities, with engineering projects that connect to everyday applications. Students learn about the potential for vehicle electrification to solve air quality issues and climate change that disproportionately affect their communities.
Explanation/Background
The course was piloted during the 2021-2022 school year at two public high schools in Denver, Colorado, in partnership with the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Integrated Teaching and Learning Program (ITLP), based in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. For the 2022-23 school year, the course expanded to two additional Denver high schools and two other ASPIRE-partnering high schools: El Paso Leadership Academy in El Paso, Texas, and InTech Collegiate Academy in Logan, Utah.
Course content includes ArcGIS StoryMaps that teach students about how emissions impact public health and help them compare and contrast electric vehicles with internal combustion engine vehicles. The final project is a team electric vehicle design challenge.
Course materials will be published on the TeachEngineering digital library.