Chapter 5. Secondary Students

Benefits to Secondary Students

Please refer to Chapter 2, Mutual Goals, to learn more about how the students in our partner schools benefit from the project. Briefly, to guide student development, our aim is to motivate and mentor the students, and provide both in-class assistance and after-school coaching and tutoring. In addition, we work to identify field trip or event opportunities, and we help to cover costs related to transportation, chaperones, catering, materials and supplies, etc. Key people involved in organizing and running these events are the (OE)2 Outreach Assistants and the School Liaison.

Pilot Year Events for High School Students

Design Expo (Fall '07 and Spring '08)

A group of students attended the College of Engineering's bi-annual Design Expo. Cramer created a checklist for the event, and sent out a special letter to students and parents to announce it. Thirty-one Ypsilanti High School (YHS) students boarded a bus to Lansing to attend this year’s College of Engineering Fall Design Exposition. This event, usually held on the U-M campus each term, took place on Tuesday, December 4, 2007 in the State Capitol Building. Students arrived in time to pick up a box lunch and then cruised the halls of the Capitol Building to view the engineering exhibits and talk to engineering design students and faculty.

NSBE Annual Conference in Florida Attendance by YHS Students

To deepen students’ understanding of engineering, future opportunities and expose them to life outside of their normal boundaries, NSBE Chapter volunteers host high school students who apply to attend the annual event. YHS students Michael Horgow and James Taylor traveled with NSBE volunteers to this year’s conference, and are now in the process of trying to establish a NSBE jr. chapter at the school. The students wrote essays to describe the experience and their renewed motivation to achieve (click on their names to read the essays).

Bilal's Stand

We screened at the school auditorium "Bilal's Stand", a feature-length film produced by a UM student, which tells his own story. Bilal was an inner-city high school student who worked at his family's long owned taxi stand. 'The Stand' was the source of all money and activity for the family for sixty years, and it Bilal was about to carry the torch. But after secretly applying to and being accepted to the University of Michigan, and taking up ice sculpting in order to win a scholarship, Bilal was forced to decide whether to continue to work at the family business, or take a chance at social mobility. The film addresses issues that many inner city youth face in regards to peer pressure, unequal education, race, class, religion, and the notion of "selling out".

Campus Visits - Lab Tours and Seminar Attendance

Teaching Fellow Tiberius Moran-Lopez invited his partner Teacher's class to tour the College of Engineering's 3D Lab. They also attended a seminar that featured the research conducted this year by Tiberius and his colleagues.

Checklists

School Liaison Checklist

The School Liaison, Carol Cramer, works closely with (OE)2 staff, Teaching Fellows, school administrators, Faculty Affiliates (Teachers) to ensure all field trips and other events for secondary students run smoothly. Cramer’s check list is one that can be adapted for similar school partnerships; however, most schools and districts have specific requirements that may or may not apply.

1. Review building use and district policies and forms on field trips.

2. Identify target group of students-compile list and contact information with information provided by counseling department. (See Pilot Year Student Selection checklist below.)

3. Review the field trip goals and budget. Identify the sources of funding for the trip and the costs involved in the trip-be clear on who is to pay for what and how the payments will be made.

4. Review the policy on photography of students and make sure it is followed.

5. Make sure the field trip request form has been filled out and approved.

6. Make sure the transportation (bus) request form has been filled out and approved.

7. Make sure the field trip permission slips (including emergency contact information) have been filled out and signed.

8. Write up a description of the field trip (click here for sample from the Design Expo) to send home with the permission slips.

9. Arrange a distribution and collection system for the description note and permission slips.

10. Secure chaperones for the field trip, and this group should include teachers.

11. Create a list of participants (name, grade, and student number) and communicate this plus the goals, meeting point, date, and times of the field trip to all school faculty, administration and staff.

12. Secure directions to the field trip destination and parking information. Be prepared to communicate this to the bus driver and others.

13. Make sure attendance is taken and all students are accounted for before departure on both ends of the field trip.

14. Do not allow a student to participate if there is no signed permission slip and emergency information.

15. Send out a follow up list of participants who attended the field trip to all school faculty, administration, and staff.

Student Selection Checklist

Cramer follows a process for selecting students and/or their parents for Field Trips, as well as for the Learning Community:

1. Identify grade level and/or career interest of students for the activity.

2. Work with the counseling department to secure data upon which to build your lists.

3. Compile a list based on the student’s Educational Development Plan. The State of Michigan requires that students exiting 8th grade complete an Educational Development Plan which is enhanced during high school. It is possible to compile a list of students by Career Pathway-the Engineering/Manufacturing & Industrial Technology pathway is a starting point.

4. For 9th and 10th grade students, use a combination of Career Pathway and 8th grade MEAP science and math proficient scores.

5. For 11th and 12th grade students, use completed requisite number of credits to graduate on time, GPA and Career Pathway.