Inspiring Secondary and Tertiary Students through Applied Electronics

The decline in engineering enrolments internationally, coupled with a high attrition rate and dramatic skills shortages, has focussed attention on the imperative to stimulate interest among secondary school students in the study of Engineering. Several programs have been developed for this purpose already with varying success. This paper reports on the ATN Engineering in Schools project at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), which stimulates interest in electronics for Years 9 and 10 as prerequisites to subject selection for senior secondary school. This program was established under the auspices of the University of South Australia, which has also developed appropriate electronics projects, curriculum and hardware. Complementing this program, QUT has developed an advanced microcontroller application called the Electronic Teaching Tool (ETT) which links projects to the technology curriculum along a broad spectrum. QUT's approach utilises senior university students as mentors to the students of the three pilot secondary schools in Brisbane. Significant benefits are expected for secondary school students, teachers, and university students engaging in this collaborative program.