Traditional engineering education gives overwhelming precedence to technical skills, leaving little room to explore the field holistically (Wisnioski 2012). This makes engineering seem distant and irrelevant to the experiences of middle school students, often discouraging them from pursuing it. As seniors in the Engineering Studies program, we want to introduce a more holistic understanding of engineering education—we argue that this will help contribute to broader understanding and representation in the field and help middle school students of varied backgrounds see themselves as engineers of the future.
To make the subject more engaging and relatable, we developed two lesson plans that prompt exploration of the question “What is Technology?” and connect engineering to practical contexts. The two lesson plans we designed for this were: “What is Technological About a Toilet?” and “Who, What, and Where of Breakfast Cereal”. We chose to teach about toilets under the sociotechnical framework because toilets represent a technology that not only involves innovative design but also addresses critical societal challenges of public health, environmental sustainability, and infrastructure systems.
Through this project, we hope to find out what exactly might be absent (or beneficial) in the middle school curriculum in Easton, why there might be a need to address it, and what we expect it will achieve. As sociotechnical engineers, we also reflected on our own experiences in engineering and the educational experiences that best educated us on these concepts.
Engineering Outreach Programs and LafKid Connect Program
We focus on outreach programs in our project. While a curricular reform may be recommended, we believe there is unparalleled agency and potential within outreach programs. The effectiveness of outreach programs has been studied by Appel, who has shown that outreach programs have been and will be an ongoing effort to bring more underrepresented communities to STEM fields in general (Appel et al 2020, 2).
The Lafkid Connect program is a collaboration between Lafayette College and the Easton Area Middle School, facilitated by the Landis Center for Community Engagement. Adam Finkelstein ’20 developed LafKid Connect during a social entrepreneurship course at Lafayette to address a gap in mentorship and exploration opportunities for local students. LafKid Connect provides middle school students from underrepresented backgrounds with the opportunity to experience a college campus and receive mentorship from college students.
Figure 1: LafKid Connect hosts students from Easton Middle School on campus every Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of Camille Carthy ’23)
The program is designed to create a welcoming and engaging environment that not only facilitates exposure to higher education but also actively promotes inclusivity. By immersing these middle school students in a collegiate setting, LafKid Connect helps to demystify the college experience and instills a sense of belonging that is often missing in traditional educational pathways. The mentorship component is particularly significant, since mentors undergo comprehensive training aimed at promoting cultural competence. This training equips them with the skills necessary to engage with the students in a way that is both respectful and understanding of their unique backgrounds (Fowler 2024).