Schools

Engineering Program Prepares High Schoolers For 21st Century Job Market

Four years after Project Lead the Way was introduced to Whitefish Bay High School, students put their skills to use in a new capstone class that requires research, design and problem solving.

After only a year of research and design, two Whitefish Bay engineers have developed a new surgical tool that has generated interest from Milwaukee School of Engineering and a private company, and could soon be on its way to receive a patent.

Those two engineers are students Austin Middleton and Thomas Bihler, and their product "Cuff Medsure" was presented on the final day of the Project Lead the Way capstone class.

Project Lead the Way, a national program that introduces engineering principles to high school students, first came to Whitefish Bay High School four years ago. Starting with an introductory engineering class, the program has grown each year to lead students to more advanced concepts in a variety of engineering fields: civil, architectural, biotechnical and digital electronics, to name a few.

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Some of the students that started with the program four years ago have followed the Project Lead the Way path all the way through to the Engineering Design and Development capstone class, which was offered for the first time this year.

Judy Weiss, who teaches the Engineering Design and Development class, worked 20 years as an engineer before coming to Whitefish Bay High School, and she said young people who excel in math and science are often unfamiliar with what the field of engineering entails.

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“Unless you have a relative in the field, it’s hard to know what engineering looks like,” Weiss said. “This is a way to expose kids to that, and it’s also a project-based learning class that involves communication and collaboration.”

Students aim high

In Weiss' class, the students use what they've learned in previous classes to identify a problem, brainstorm a solution and create a unique product that solves the problem. At the end of the year, they pitched their proposals to professional engineers, who offered their feedback after the presentation.

"It really is learning about the engineering design process," Weiss said. "Our students really walked through identifying a problem, had to prove that it's valid, see if the technology exists, build a protoype, test it, see if the solution works and then make their presentation."

Many of the projects coincided with the students' own personal interests.

Whitefish Bay High School seniors and baseball players James Stecker and Justin Alt designed a more sturdy and durable baseball tee using fibers instead of rubber to hold a baseball.

Seniors Katie Cook and Andy Searles, both bicyclists, came up with the idea of an aluminum bike chain that would be less likely to rust than a traditional steel chain.

Once the students identify the focus of their work, they are responsible for seeking advice from a mentor in their field to refine their design. For Middleton and Bihler, their mentor was so impressed with their "Cuff Medsure" surgical needle that he expressed interest in a partnership.

So, how did two high school seniors end up designing a new surgical needle? When they were looking at possible research areas, Middleton's father, a surgeon, suggested they find a way to help surgeons better decide which type of surgery to use when treating rotator cuff tears.

Middleton and Bihler said 95 percent of surgeons admitted to being uncertain which type of surgical procedure to follow when treating rotator cuff tears, which sometimes leads patients to another round of surgery.

There are two methods surgeons use to treat rotator cuff tears: If the tear is less than 50 percent of the diameter, surgeons cut out the scar tissue and let the tendon heal itself. If the tear is more than 50 percent, surgeons cut all the way through the tendon, reposition it and re-attach it.

With Middleton and Bihler's prototype, one needle is pushed through until it rests upon the bone, and a second needle is pushed through to the tendon.

MSOE gave the two students a grant to create their prototype, and a medical supply company has indicated an interest in working with the students on the project in the future. The students are also pursuing a patent for their design.

"Currently only one product is on the market with a patent pending," Middleton said. "We looked at that design a little bit but we determined we could make a product that would minimize the damage."

Growing interest

Since it was born four years ago, Project Lead the Way has generated more and more interest from Whitefish Bay students.

Next year, the high school will open a second section of the introductory engineering class to accomodate the 50 interested students. The school is also opening a second section of biomedical engineering.

That's a considerable growth in interest, considering the rigorous electives make up one-seventh of a student's schedule for the entire school year — not just one semester. Teachers and administrators have talked about fine-tuning the existing courses and possibly offering options to make the courses more appealing to new students.

Another class, Civil Engineering and Architecture, explores different architectural styles and taught students to design buildings using three-dimensional Computer-Aided Design (CAD).

Their final project was to build a community center on the old Whitefish Bay Armory site. The six teams of students surveyed community members, examined building codes, laid out basic designs and pitched their ideas to a panel of architects and engineers at the end of the year.

Bob Bruch, the teacher of the class, said the Civil Engineering class and the introductory engineering class is a unique challenge for some students, because it requires them to think three-dimensionally for the first time in their academic career. The courses also emphasize the engineering process and organizational thinking.

"We spend a lot of time talking about organization and process," he said. "To think in an organizational way is huge in engineering. There are things you need to think about and things you need to do before you can start doing what most students think of as engineering."

An uncertain future for innovation

The effort to get young people interested in engineering careers isn't isolated to Whitefish Bay.

Project Lead the Way is part of a much larger, nationwide initative aimed at promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum in today's students. It hopes those students can fill the deficit of engineering graduates left by retiring Baby Boomers and innovate new sectors of the economy.

Demand is expected to rise for skilled workers in science, technology and engineering fields, but the number of students pursuing STEM degrees is actually declining, according to a Congressional report drafted in April. This talent deficit has caught the attention of federal legislators, and President Obama has pushed for one million college graduates with STEM degrees over the next decade.

The lack of skilled STEM workers has been a concern in the academic community for about 20 years, and only recently has caught national attention, said Steve Salters, the director of Project Lead the Way at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the PLTW university affiliate in Wisconsin.

“We’re very concerned that the number of two- and four-year graduates coming out of the pipeline are not nearly sufficient to support the economy, based on the fact that we have a Baby Boomer generation close to rolling out of the workforce,” Salters said.

Project Lead the Way first came to Wisconsin in 10 years ago and has since spread to 300 schools throughout the state. Wisconsin ranks fifth in the nation in terms of Project Lead the Way participation, and on a per capita basis, the state ranks second after Indiana.

Part of that success is based on support from the Kern Family Foundation, which pays the first three years of start-up costs for local schools. In Whitefish Bay, the program has received supplemental support through . Whitefish Bay teachers hope to form more partnerships with private industry to help students get a real-world perspective of engineering and utilize equipment that is too expensive to be purchased by the school district.

Project Lead the Way not only hopes to make engineering coursework more accessible, it also aims to prepare students for the rigorous introductory courses they will face in their freshman year of college. That’s why MSOE, in particular, aggressively recruits Project Lead the Way students, Salter said.

“Students who are pursuing careers in STEM will be producing tomorrow’s innovation and producing opportunities for academic expansion,” he said. “Project Lead the Way’s curriculum is designed to raise the bar to prepare them for success at the college level.”


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