e4usa February 2024 Newsletter

e4usa Partners with Maryland State Department of Education

Engineering for US All is proud to announce a $1M grant from the Maryland State Department of Education. This award lays the groundwork for continued growth of e4usa in Maryland, building upon five years of ongoing engagement with high school teachers and university educators in the state. A new cohort of up to 20 high school teachers will begin a yearlong commitment to e4usa in the summer of 2024, teaching the course in their public high schools in the 2024-2025 academic year. A separate group of community college and university professors will begin a second cohort focused on developing post-secondary e4usa courses and credit for prior learning opportunities.

Kelly Dunston, Montgomery County’s CTE Director says, "Through hands-on projects and mentoring, e4usa gives students an outstanding foundation in engineering principles and design thinking.  We have embraced this partnership as we feel e4usa gives our students the tools they need to face the innovative engineering challenges of tomorrow."

MSDE is a wonderful partner with outstanding instructional leadership provided, particularly by Scott Nichols, Eliza Hozore, and Tiffany DeJesus.

If you or a colleague are an educator in Maryland and want to take part in this work, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at apply@e4usa.org. 

e4usa School Receives Indiana DOE Grant

e4usa Teacher, Scott Dooley, at Christel House Academy South co-authored the K-12 Robotics Competition Grant for his school that landed their school an $18k+ award from the Indiana Department of Education. Scott thanked his involvement in e4usa's + First Robotics program, as well as the guidance and support from e4usa team members, for helping with receiving the award. The review team for the grant stated that they were "impressed by [the school's] plan to embrace Indiana's Priorities for STEM Education by initializing and expanding robotics competition teams in Indiana." Congrats, Scott! We're proud of you!

e4usa Sponsors International Coalition of Girls' Schools Symposium

Stacy Klein-Gardner and e4usa Teacher, Jeff Richied, attended the International Coalition of Girls Schools Symposium on Feb 15 at the Marlborough School (CA). In an afternoon session, they shared e4usa’s curriculum, professional learning model, research highlights, and even had the participants designing their own shoe soles in an activity from Unit 1!

e4usa Celebrates E-Week

This year, e4usa spent E-Week celebrating our liaisons, teachers, and collaborators. E-Week is an exciting time for e4usa, as it celebrates the dedication and creativity of its liaisons, teachers, and curriculum in promoting engineering education. As an organization committed to fostering the next generation of engineers, e4usa recognizes the vital role played by its liaisons, who serve as advocates for engineering education in their communities.

e4usa Speaks at University of Texas San Antonio

The University of Texas at San Antonio is now offering a Master’s degree in Engineering Education! Dr. Stacy Klein-Gardner was thrilled to be among the initial speakers for their inaugural cohort on February 6. She spoke about Engineering for US All, addressing our research framework and theory of action leading to selected research results. e4usa is so happy to see the growing number of engineering educators and is grateful to Dr. Araceli Ortiz for her leadership in the field.

e4usa Team Members Presenting at Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention & Expo

Each year at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention & Expo, thousands of special education professionals from around the world come together to learn, share, grow, and connect. With hundreds of sessions on just about every topic in the field, the CEC Convention & Expo is THE professional development event for special educators to find research, tips, and strategies you can actually apply to supporting students with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. (taken from their website).

Jenny Kouo and Jeannie Chipps will be presenting work around broadening participation in engineering education.

• Broadening Participation through Engineering Projects that Engage Students with Disabilities, has been accepted as a Poster session and is scheduled for Thursday, March 14, 2024, from 1:00:00 PM-1:45:00 PM.
• Engineering Community Inclusion of Students with Autism, has been accepted as a Poster session and is scheduled for Friday, March 15, 2024, from 1:00:00 PM-1:45:00 PM.
• High School Engineering Course in Special Education Classroom: Broadening Participation, has been accepted as a Poster session and is scheduled for Friday, March 15, 2024, from 1:00:00 PM-1:45:00 PM.

Want to offer e4usa on your college campus? 

Are you looking to refresh your Intro to Engineering course to include authentic engineering design problems for real clients?  Or perhaps you need a new course to keep first year students excited about engineering while you build their math skills? What about a course for non-majors to build their engineering literacy? e4usa can be scaled to suit all of these audiences on your campus.

New Professor Professional Development (Online)

July 29-31, 2024
9 AM - 4 PM ET

August 1, 2024
9 AM - 12 PM ET

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We welcome all schools to learn more about this effort by visiting our website and signing up for our newsletter here. As always, we appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may have for our newsletter. Look for us on social media platforms with the hashtag #e4usa.