SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR |  RSS | | REPRINT
|
Priming the Talent Pump
December 14, 2009
By Sarah Boehle
Faced with a dwindling pool of qualified job applicants with college degrees in the hard sciences, the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport recently implemented an educational outreach program aimed at opening the minds of Newport's middle school students to the wonders of math and science.
"The program's goals are threefold," says coordinator Candie Desjardins. "First, Seaperch is intended to increase awareness of real-world science and engineering applications among students. Second, the program serves as an introduction to NUWC Division Newport's mission and the type of work performed here." Third, Desjardins says, NUWC Division Newport hopes that a portion of students touched by the program eventually will feed a hiring pipeline of appropriately credentialed scientists and engineers who are keen to launch civilian careers working for NUWC Division Newport.
Students who participate in the Seaperch program do so voluntarily and meet weekly for several hours to study topics ranging from the physics of buoyancy and acoustics to basic robotics. The program employs a hands-on approach to teach students the basics of engineering and design for undersea vehicles. Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Office of U.S. Naval Research, Seaperch immerses students in practical lessons and experiments highlighting the scientific principles involved in nearly all aspects of submersible vehicle technology, says Desjardins. "Students not only engineer and build their vehicles to meet particular specifications, at the end of the semester, they get the chance to test them out in large seawater tanks at our lab facilities."
Desjardins says middle school offers the ideal venue for a program such as Seaperch because it is during these critical years that students are first afforded choices regarding the subjects they study. "The academic groundwork for a college degree in mathematics or engineering begins in middle school," she says. "So it's a perfect time for us to provide students with the kinds of learning opportunities that spark their imaginations and inspire a lifetime of scientific curiosity that sustains them throughout their careers."
Interested in implementing an educational outreach program of your own? Here are Desjardins' tips for success:
• Establish a beachhead. For NUWC Division Newport, a close working relationship with the local Newport public school district is key to a smoothly running program. "Given national standardized testing requirements, the school system was receptive to a program such as Seaperch, which is aimed at bolstering basic math and science skills." Schools in the district also have played an instrumental role in promoting Seaperch and creating enthusiasm for the program—both among students and within the Newport community generally, says Desjardins.
• Make it hands-on. "Science is most compelling—particularly for school-age kids—when it can be explicitly linked to the real world," says Desjardins. "It doesn't get any more real than building your own remote-controlled submarine."
• Create ongoing opportunities. Desjardins says Seaperch is but one component among many intended to reach not only middle school students, but scholars in high school and college, too. "In addition to Seaperch, the learning and development opportunities for motivated students who participate in our educational outreach programs include paid internships, a variety of scholarship programs, and engineering and scientific mentoring activities."
Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division (NUWC) Newport is the U.S. Navy's full-spectrum research, development, test and evaluation, engineering, and fleet support center for submarine warfare systems and other systems associated with the undersea battle space. In 2009, it placed 112th on Training magazine's Top 125 list, an annual ranking of organizations that excel at human capital development.
|
SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR | RSS |
|
|
| Back to Training Index |
|
|
