Electricks: Pre-College Activities in Electro-Mechanics

This research to practice full paper is a survey based paper that examines the impact of a set of experiments in electro-mechanics, designed to introduce pre-college students to electrical engineering in a fun, hands-on manner that demonstrates the basic principles of power generation and electromagnetism. It involves a set of 3 experiments which build on each other to teach the participants about how electrical currents and magnets create an electromotive force that can be used to generate power. These activities were presented alongside information about regional college level engineering programs that are accessible to the students. The program is an easily scalable addition to camp-based programs that can be taken to schools to introduce students who are unable to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) related extracurricular programs to engineering. Participating students were given surveys to gauge their level of interest and their tendency to choose engineering after performing the experiments. Participating schools were in the Springfield Public School district in Missouri