The Boeing Grand Challenges K-12 Outreach Program is an academic enhancement program partnering the Pratt School of Engineering with local elementary, middle and high Schools in Durham and Orange counties. The Boeing Grand Challenges Outreach Fellows Program is designed to increase the number of younger students who are interested in and prepared for college-level engineering and science classes.
The Boeing Fellows interact with teachers and students by bringing activities to K-12 students that inform and engage them in making the world a better place through projects on health, sustainability, security and joy of living. They bring these Grand Challenges to the K-12 population through hands-on, mind-engaging learning activities in many venues, including the classroom, in afterschool, club and organization settings, and during on-campus visits and activities. All of these activities are mapped and correlated to the existing common core math and the essential science standards approved by the State Board of Education and the NC Department of Public Instruction.
Boeing Fellows also develop exciting hands-on activities as requested by teachers to fit specific components of their curriculum. For instance, for a biology class, a module could be developed on the brain and nervous system, or on the heart and circulatory system, or on DNA, or on communicable diseases, or on viruses, or on life cycles of plants or animals, as is appropriate for a specific grade level and course. Mathematics is an important part of these modules and modules include activities which show the principles learned in students’ mathematics courses in actual use. All of the modules are developed so that students understand the value and utility of the subjects they are learning and their relevance to their actual lives.
This program is under the direction of Carmen Rawls, Assistant Dean of Advising and Outreach at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.