Contact: Drew Kim, College of Engineering, (517) 353-7282, kima@egr.msu.edu; Laura Seeley, College of Engineering, (517) 432-1303, lseeley@egr.msu.edu
June 15, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University’s College of Engineering today announced it has received a $50,400 Innovation Generation grant from the Motorola Foundation to bring middle school and high school students and teachers into MSU research labs next summer.
The Motorola Foundation’s Innovation Generation grants support programs that engage students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to build the confidence and skills they need for success both now and in the long term. This year, the Motorola Foundation is providing $5 million in grants to more than 100 programs across the country in support of out-of-school programming, teacher training, curriculum development and other programs.
MSU’s Innovation Generation grant will be used to fund the Pathway to Becoming a Spartan Engineer Middle and High School Research Experience in summer 2010, an immersive engineering research experience for middle school and high school students.
Students from across the United States who have demonstrated a strong interest in, and aptitude for, a career in the STEM fields will be invited to MSU to participate. Participants will be selected from a pool of students attending one of three MSU residential programs scheduled for this summer – Wireless Integrated MicroSystems, High School Engineering Institute and Women in Engineering. They will be evaluated during these programs and notified at the end of the summer if they have been chosen to participate in the 2010 research experience.
The students will join returning teachers who previously participated in MSU’s 2008 Research Experience for Teachers program, which was funded by an Innovation Generation grant. Students and teachers will be paired up based on student interviews, specific interests, and teachers’ areas of expertise. About 20 students and 8 teachers are expected to participate. They will work side by side with MSU faculty members in their labs to create hands-on engineering curricula for science, technology, and/or engineering classes. MSU undergraduate and graduate students will also be working in the labs alongside the participants.
“These students and teachers will gain knowledge in cutting-edge technologies and will learn how to devise well-developed, exciting, engineering-based curricula,” said Drew Kim, assistant to the dean for recruitment and K-12 outreach in MSU’s College of Engineering.
The middle school program will run for one week, while the high school students will be on campus for two to three weeks.
“Research has shown that these types of experiences help develop an engineering and technology awareness in these students,” said Kim. “In addition, the teachers have reported an increase in their awareness and promotion of engineering to their students.”
Engineering faculty participating in the program include Evangelyn C. Alocilja, associate professor of biosystems engineering, Nano-Biosensors Lab; Seungik Baek, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Cardiovascular and Tissue Mechanics Laboratory; Wen Li, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Microtechnology Lab; Xiaobo Tan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Smart Microsystems Lab; and Irene Xagoraraki, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, Water Quality Engineering Laboratory. Students and teachers will be placed in a lab based on their interest areas.
“Innovation Generation programs make science and math both real and fun for today’s students, bringing to life what they hear from their teachers every day,” said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Foundation. “The work MSU’s College of Engineering is doing to engage students in these subjects will help our next generation to succeed in a global, knowledge-based economy where critical thinking is no longer just a benefit, but a necessity.”
This is the fourth Innovation Generation grant received by MSU’s College of Engineering.
Last year, the college received a $75,000 grant to support its Research Experience for Teachers program. In 2007, the college received two Innovation Generation grants -- $50,000 to fund Wireless Integrated MicroSystems for Teens (WIMS for Teens), a two-week summer residential program for 7th- to 9th-graders; and $45,000 to support a Youth in Energy and Environment Humanitarian Project, which involved working with 5th- and 6th-graders at Lansing’s Woodcreek Magnet School to develop a solar-heated worm-based composting bin.
This year, Motorola will convene its grantees at the first annual Innovation Generation Conference. MSU will join dozens of other grantees to share best practices and cultivate the collaborative learning environment necessary to harness students’ curiosity about STEM.
To learn more about the Motorola Foundation’s Innovation Generation grants please visit www.motorola.com/giving.
