Middle School Outreach

1
Middle School Outreach

• Steve Johnson
• Buenaventura Chapter,
• IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
• August, 2007

2
Acknowledgements

• Chapter Officers
• Pat Jacobs
• Brian Rasnow
• Mike Shaw
• David Steinmeier
• IEEE Foundation Grant 2006-007

• Cal Lutheran University Students
• Joshua Lee
• Thomas Estus
• Gregory Johnson
• Stephen Roberts
• Corey Russo
• Abigail Corrin
• Presenters

3
Summary

• Our chapter introduced biomedicalengineering to
  7th grade students throughan entertaining road
  show.
• We present familiar medical tools, explain how
  engineers help people by designing them. 
• We have presented the program to over 400
  middle-school students in southern California. 
• The presenters are students from the Cal Lutheran
  University (CLU) student chapter of IEEE-EMBS.
• The initiative was funded by IEEE Foundation
  Grant 2006-007.

4
Funding

• The initiative was conceived, and grant proposal
  written to the IEEE Foundation in 2005.
• The IEEE Foundation fundedthe grant in early
  2006.
• Details of the implementationof the program
  changed dur-ing development we kept theIEEE
  Foundation updated through quarterly progress
  reports.
• We received permission to extend expenditures
  into 2007.
• We filed a Project Completion Report in 2007,
  which was accepted at the Foundations June
  meeting.

5
Why Middle School Students?

• Middle School students are intellectually
  curious, energetic, and fun. We hoped to
  harness that sense of enthusiasm through our
  roadshow.
• Middle School students are advanced enough to
  understand basic engineeringand scientific
  principles. 
• After Middle School, kids steer away from
  engineering, math, and the sciences. We hoped to
  intervene.
• In the United States, the 7th grade curriculum is
  particularly appropriate, as it focuses on
  physiology, anatomy, and the scientific method. 

6
Course Materials

• Chapter officers prepared the lesson plan using
  the California standard format.
• Students at California Lutheran University's
  Bioengineering Program developed the
  presentation materials and script, assigned
  roles, and conducted rehearsals prior to the
  presentations.
• The presentation is about 45 minutes long,
  combining didactic, interactive, and hands-on
  elements. 
• Lesson Plan and Presentation are available at
• www.bv-embs-chapter.com

7
ECG Demonstration

• To make the lesson more tangible, we purchased a
  BioPac Science Lab kit to display the students'
  own ECG signals.
• We had many volunteers during our presentations.
• The student presenters enjoyed practicing with
  the ECG.

8
Results

• School District officials have been enthusiastic!
• They've been impressed with
• preparation of the lesson plan and presentation
  materials
• alignment with the 7th grade curriculum
• use of didactic, interactive, and hands-on
  learning modes
• involvement and leadership of CLU bioengineering
  students
• the fact that we had anticipated their needs in
  designing this to fit within a 45-minute class
  period
• little advance prep required from the teachers
• Weve been invited back for the 2007-2008 school
  year!