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June 6, 2008
Purdue to host educators interested in service-learning engineering
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A summer program that provides high school teachers and administrators with the tools and resources needed to implement design-based, service-learning engineering projects for their students will host two sessions.The Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)-Learning program is organizing its first weeklong session June 9-13 in the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. A second one-week session will be July 14-18.
EPICS High is a program that integrates engineering design concepts with service-learning and enables participants to develop partnerships to address students' educational needs and the technical needs of their communities.
"EPICS High gives students the unique opportunity to become civically engaged in their local communities, explore their interests and career options, and gain real professional experience with hands-on engineering and technology design projects," said Pamela Turner, EPICS High program coordinator.
Turner said organizers encourage at least one administrator and one teacher to participate in the sessions, and attendees can receive college credit or continuing education units. Participants will receive an introduction to engineering design, learn about best practices of EPICS at other schools, project management, and how to create and sustain community partnerships.
EPICS was founded at Purdue in 1995 by Leah Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering, and Edward J. Coyle, a former Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering. The EPICS program involves some 30 departments at Purdue and 30 community partnerships. EPICS programs are now operating at 18 universities in the United States and one in New Zealand.
After successful implementation of the EPICS program at Bedford North Lawrence High School in Bedford, Ind., Purdue EPICS alumni working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., received funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service to expand to other high schools through a Learn and Serve America grant.
In 2006 the EPICS model was introduced to a pilot group of high schools, and students started work on their first community-based projects the following year. Lafayette Jefferson and McCutcheon high schools, along with other institutions in Indiana, California, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York, have begun EPICS partnerships. Plans are under way for a larger scale nationwide rollout.
Sponsors for the sessions include the Corporation for National and Community Service, Purdue's College of Engineering, Purdue's Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE), Convergence Education Foundation, Eli Lilly and Co., Intel Corp., Rolls-Royce Inc. and State Farm Insurance.
Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu
Source: Pamela Turner, (765) 496-1889, plturner@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: Journalists can interview sources at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (June 11) at the EPICS dinner that will be at University Place, 1700 Lindberg Road. in West Lafayette.
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