Precollege Education Programs

The aim of ERC precollege education programs is to bring engineering knowledge and concepts to the precollege audience to raise students’ awareness of engineering and stimulate their interest in pursuing an engineering career—whether at the ERC or elsewhere. ERCs are required to develop long-term partnerships with precollege schools to build relationships with their teachers and students, so engineering becomes part of the precollege educational experience and their students interact with university students and faculty to enable them to better understand the role of engineers in the economy. In 2012, over 46,000 K-12 students participated in ERC outreach programs. A special feature of Gen-3 ERCs is a Young Scholars Program, focused on bringing talented high school students into ERC laboratories to carry out research and expose them to technology development efforts at the same time in order further stimulate their interest in careers in engineering.

Examples of precollege education programs at ERCs can be found here.