NOTABLE ENGINEERS: A PROJECT BOOK

 Typically, teachers and counselors for grades 712 are not sufficiently educated in the areas of engineering to provide information and guidance to students. In addition, unconscious gender-related behavior by teachers in the classroom can dissuade female students from considering engineering even when there is an increased awareness of the discipline. Nationwide, there is a growing need for students to choose engineering as a profession, and to respond to the demands of an ever-increasing technology oriented society. Therefore, encouraging women in engineering and providing all students with a respect and history of women engineers are beneficial to all. This paper reports on a project designed to disseminate information about engineering through experiments and biographies of engineers in a format that can be integrated into the existing 7-12 curriculum. Each experiment is linked to an engineering discipline, which in turn is linked to an engineer in that field. The engineers selected are all women, and presented as matter-of-factly as resources that highlight all male engineers. Index Terms  engineering biographies, engineering history, K-12 engineering education, women in engineering.