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CUE 2004

OUTREACH NEWS
Alumni Gift Creates Native American Engineering and Science Center

Upward Bound students build balloon satellites during the summer 2003 program.

This summer, the college will host 54 Native American high school students from across the country in a six-week summer residential program designed to increase both the interest and ability of these students to pursue an undergraduate education in engineering.

First- and second-year students will work at the Colorado Space Grant Consortium to design, build, and launch balloon satellites, while third-year students will participate in an open-ended, team-based, hands-on engineering project in the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory. All of the students" work will be showcased at a Design Expo to be held on Friday afternoon, July 23. The public is invited.

The college's Native American Engineering and Science Center was developed in collaboration with CU-Boulder's Upward Bound Program, a pre-collegiate program for Native American high school students that has operated on campus for 25 years. The new center replaces the Upward Bound Math and Science Center, which lost its funding this year.

Working with the leadership of the campus Upward Bound Program, the college created a vision for the center that uses engineering as a compelling framework for other science and math educational endeavors. While we recognize that not everyone wants to be an engineer, we believe that engineering, the creative and inventive use of technology to serve human need, represents a way to engage young men and women that transcends simple science and math enrichment.

In our approach, fundamental (and often theoretical) science and math knowledge is made more tangible, relevant and accessible to young men and women when taught in the applied context of real-world engineering. Students also gain an understanding of the pervasiveness of engineering artifacts in their world and develop an appreciation that engineering is fundamentally about creating things for the benefit of society.

Our vision for the Native American Engineering and Science Center was shared by college alumnus Jim Abrams (CivEngr "49) and his wife, Elsie. Thanks to their generous gift, Native American students from across the country will be exploring their interests in math and science through hands-on engineering design at CU.

ecadw.colorado.edu/engineering/outreach