AC 2011-530: A NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY CAREER DEVELOP- MENT WORKSHOP FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN A HISPANIC SERVING INSTITUTION

In recent years, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi entered into a partnership with the Nuclear Power Institute or NPI to attract students into careers in nuclear power and science. The partnership naturally involved both student recruitment and curriculum development efforts. As a part of this recruitment effort, a summer workshop was designed and implemented to train, prepare for research, and educate local area high school teachers for the careers in engineering, engineering technology and the nuclear power industry. First, an outreach effort to local area public, private high and junior high schools was organized to advertise and promote the workshop. After a considerable effort of visits and networking, a total of twenty teachers with a variety of science, math and technology specialties participated in this week-long program held in July of 2010. During the workshop, a simple, portable curriculum, which can also be used by teachers in their institutions, was given to attract both teachers and students in the fundamental areas of Electrical Engineering Technology that is applicable to Nuclear Power Systems. The curriculum included both lecture and lab sessions which are suitable for beginners in Electric and Digital Systems. Additionally, a field trip to a nearby nuclear power plant and an oil refining facility was organized to introduce teachers to the industry. Finally, a survey was conducted to evaluate the overall workshop and the staff/faculty performance as well as the sustainability of the established curriculum. The great majority of the feedback received from the teachers during and after the workshop indicated the success of this program. This paper describes this summer program in detail and presents its assessment and follow up results.