In-service Training Program Offered to Worcester County School Districts

A new program that was piloted in Florida brings the engineering experience to teachers. Engineers from various sections across the country have come together to create educational, interesting, and fun activities for teachers to present in the classroom. Unlike simply going into the classroom and providing a single class with an engineering activity, this program is designed to show the teachers how they can present this material. All teachers must complete in-service training as part of their ongoing certification process. Various local school districts often provide workshops and seminars at their schools for the teachers. Some of these workshops and seminars are presented at no cost to the district by various vendors of educational products. There are also some programs are presented by the state especially in areas of special education. With this program IEEE volunteers will present a workshop on various topics of engineering in the classroom. One topic presented in Florida followed through on the design process of creating fingernail clippers. The project ended with the construction of a model of fingernail clippers built out of foam board. I have completed a half-day workshop on bringing low-cost, no cost engineering activities into the classroom. If anyone knows of a school district in the Worcester County area that would like to have meet one on this in-service training session please contact me or pass my information on to those in charge of setting up the in-service training at that school district.

Larry G. Nelson Sr., Chairman
L.Nelson@ieee.org
508-943-1075
P.O. Box 416
Webster Massachusetts 01570-0416