Engineering Project Activities Designed to Promote STEM Engagement

This paper discusses the design and delivery of engineering laboratory and project activities for pK-12 STEM students as part of the outreach program to recognize and exploit the links between the pK-12 STEM curriculum and the undergraduate engineering degree programs. Hands-on laboratory and project-based experiences are among the most effective means to introduce and reinforce concepts in engineering disciplines. The faculty and students from undergraduate engineering programs interact with pK-12 students either by (a) organizing visits by the pK-12 students to the engineering laboratories or by (b) travel to the STEM school to demonstrate and engage pK-12 students in engineering laboratory and project activities at their school. The engineering laboratory and project activities for middle and high school students comprise the assembly and testing of wireless sensor networks for radio frequency imaging of space. Radio frequency signals can be used to perform non-invasive and device-free target localization of objects or entities in space. Radio tomographic imaging uses wireless sensor networks to form images from the attenuation of the radio frequency signals. The radio tomographic imaging system is comprised of three subsystems the wireless sensor network, the command and data collection platform, and the user interface. The distinction between the two groups of students - middle school and high school - is made through the complexity of the design of each subsystem.