Work in progress: International teacher development: Engineering into the classroom in the Dominican Republic

The IEEE Teacher In Service Program (TISP) enables teachers to effectively introduce engineering into the K-12 environment. The program consists of training for engineers to hold in-service workshops for teachers who then take hands-on engineering projects into their classroom. Teachers are provided with lesson plans (available in English and Spanish), tied to educational standards in the United States, all accessible on the website tryengineering.org. Each activity is designed to be inexpensive (often less than $10 for a classroom). This program has been successfully implemented throughout the United States for over ten years. Additionally, workshops have been implemented in other countries, including Malaysia, South Africa and Chile. The IEEE teamed with electrical engineering and engineering education faculty and students from Ohio Northern University to implement the TISP activities in a series of schools in impoverished regions in the Dominican Republic. This project allows the team to visit five schools and directly impact over 2000 students. The team will offer the initial workshops in May 2012, then visit the teachers to interview and conduct focus groups to assess the effectiveness of the workshops. A final assessment plan will be developed that will assist in assessment of other international offerings. This work-in-progress should be of interest to anyone working with international engineering education, especially within impoverished or developing countries.