36C-1 |
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E. PALOU, Center for Engineering Education, Univ. de las Américas, Puebla, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, Mexico and A. Lopez-Malo, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Alimentos, Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, Santa Catarina Mártir, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, Mexico. Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (UDLA) places a high priority on reaching out to the local community. Such outreach fosters service opportunities so that K-12 students can discover engineering and science careers. Service is a fundamental aspect of being a professional, and thus fundamental to our students' education. UDLA's Alimentos Divertidos is an inquiry-based science program for middle school students. Our goal is to transform how middle school students view and do science. We have developed, implemented, and evaluated educational materials (simple and inexpensive experiments that utilize easy-to-obtain materials) and pedagogical practices designed jointly with middle school teachers, in which foods are used as a tool to facilitate science learning. We hold an on-campus one-week summer workshop in order to help teachers incorporate the experiments and pedagogical practices. Teacher-learning communities have also been developed. An Internet page with all the materials is available. Among Alimentos Divertidos educational benefits are hands-on learning models (students work in teams to complete hands-on laboratory exercises to learn elementary science principles); learning that science is a fun career field (addressing national studies showing that teenagers lose interest in engineering and science during middle school years); and breaking down barriers (students of diverse ages, gender, ethnic and economic backgrounds, and academic skill levels come together to exchange ideas on how to solve a science experiment). They also learn that there are other students who are interested in becoming scientists. Student, teacher, and parent surveys from the past year reveal that our program has successfully achieved its aim of attracting and retaining area teenagers in engineering and science fields while showing that these areas are fun and exciting. Alimentos Divertidos brings about a true community of learners, where we learn from the experience and shared information as much as or more than middle school students and teachers.
Session 36C, Education: General
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |