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TSPE Career Days Handbook
I. Introduction
Career Days is an ongoing program that gives engineers the opportunity to interact with young students throughout each year. Each year TSPE members visit high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, or attend career fairs. The engineers visit with young students to promote engineering and answer any questions that students may have about the engineering profession.
Our goal is to provide students with a better understanding of the professional engineering career and to attract a higher percentage of engineering graduates to the licensing track. Talking with students about engineering is an ideal way to meet those goals. Career Days only takes a few hours out of one day. The experience is very rewarding for both the engineer and the students.
II. Career Days Chair
Being a Career Days chair does not mean that you will need to attend every Career Days event that your chapter has been invited to. Your responsibility consists of coordinating Career Days events with local schools, including (but not limited to):
Contacting the local schools or districts and providing them with our information. Coordinating Career Days events with members of your chapter and local schools. Providing members with any resources needed to visit with students. Participating in Career Fairs or Engineering Expos.
A sample letter has been provided in Exhibit 1. Members have expressed a fear of not being able to relate to the students in their presentations. If your chapter has not already done so, it is beneficial to research student activities or create example presentations so that the members have a basis to build their presentation on. Examples and additional suggestions for presenters can be found in Section III.
August 15, 2013
Dear School Counselors, Teachers, and Administrators:
The Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE), Preston Trail Chapter, is interested in participating in activities surrounding “Career Days” that your district may sponsor for its students. TSPE is a voluntary, non-profit organization that promotes career opportunities in engineering and provides leadership and guidance for practicing engineers. Our local chapter, which includes your area, is active in events in which the local schools participate, such as MathCounts, National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC), and various scholarships.
It is our desire to participate in district-wide career day events or individual school functions to promote career opportunities in engineering. We can tailor our presentation to fit your needs whether it’s a booth display or a group of engineers addressing the students. We speak to all students, but prefer to target students in the upper middle school and high school grade levels.
If your school sponsors such events, please do not hesitate to forward your information or application forms so we may plan to intend. I can be reached at the following location:
Rosa Plesner, P.E.AtkinsSenior Engineer18383 Preston Rd, Suite 500Dallas, TX 75252Ph: (972) 588-3115Fax: (972) [email protected]
Thank you for your time and assistance. We look forward to assisting you in your educational events.
Truly yours,
Rosa Plesner, P.E.TSPE - Preston Trail ChapterCareer Day Chair
Exhibit 1: Sample Letter
III. Information for Presenters
Once you have signed up to present at a school, your Career Days chair or school representative will provide you with the information you’ll need to prepare. Be sure to verify that the school has the appropriate hardware and software that you will need for your presentation.
Most presentations, regardless of student’s age, typically last between 30 and 40 minutes. To help keep the students’ attention throughout the entire presentation, consider including the following material in your presentation.
A. Class Presentations
A presentation can focus on an engineer’s experiences, a project, a discussion of various engineering types, or any other engineering related subject. The length of the presentation will vary from one person to another. The power point presentation typically contains between 15 and 20 slides. Below is an outline of what could be included in the presentation.
5 minutes: The presenter can introduce him or herself, including education/experience, interest, or a personal story (what factors influenced you to pursue a career in engineering).
20-25 minutes: Presentation and/or Activity. Describe what the engineering career is and what educational background (ABET accredited university, proper classes to take in high school, etc) is needed to get there. Additional topics include responsibilities of an engineer, typical working hours, salary range, types of clients, and types of projects are only some examples of what can be included in a presentation. If you plan to do an activity, make sure that you practice your presentation and activity in advance.
5-10 minutes: Questions and Answers
Keep in mind that most students have not taken advanced physics or mathematics courses. Use layman’s descriptions or provide definitions in your slides for your engineering related discussions. Consider your audience’s age in mind when developing your presentation. For example, some humor in your presentation for elementary or middle school students may keep them engaged. For high school students, try focusing on what to expect in college or steps they will need to take in order to obtain a PE license.
A power point presentation with a plain background and long paragraphs can easily lose the attention of a young audience. Incorporate pictures of projects, engineers, or animated people/objects and add color to your slides to bring your presentation to life. Consider an interactive activity during your presentation, bring a model or handouts for show and tell, or give out prizes, such as company paraphernalia, to those who participate during or after the presentation. Refer to sections C and D for
more information on sample activities and handouts.
B. Sample Presentation
2 Slides: Presenter introduces herself and civil engineering to a group of middle school students.
8 Slides: Presenter speaks about civil engineering and provides a project example to discuss what roles civil engineers take when designing a stadium. The eighth slide shows a local project example of a retaining wall in the design phase and a photograph during its construction.
2 Slides: Presenter briefly describes other type of engineers and examples of recent projects.
4 Slides: Presenter provides general information on the benefits and requirements of being an engineer.
C. Handouts
Consider providing students with handouts to supplement your presentation. After the sample presentation in Section B, students may have questions about other types of engineers. A sample handout explaining the engineering types, such as the one in Exhibit 2 below, could be provided to help answer these questions. Other examples of handouts include copies of the presentation, useful engineering websites, high school coursework needed, or recommendations on how to seek engineering related activities around the community.
Exhibit 2: Sample Handout
D. Activities
If you plan to choose a hands-on activity that students can take home, keep in mind that elementary and middle school children will continue to play with the activity for the remainder of the day. Be careful of picking activities that create throwing, noise creating, or messy objects. If you feel that this type of activity helps describe your career, discuss the activity with the school representative beforehand. Provide the option of picking the activity back up at the end of the presentation. Exhibit 3 below is an example of a short activity. More advanced activities can take as little as 20 minutes.
TSPE Preston Trails Chapter has compiled resources to help facilitate discussions with young students. Additional sample presentations and engineering related activities for the students to perform can be found in TSPE Preston Trails Chapter’s Career Days website.
Exhibit 3: Sample Activity
