What are the biggest obstacles to student understanding in the courses you teach? We posed this question to a group of secondary math teachers participating in the Engineering Math Initiative (EMI) sponsored by the GE fund. Here's what they said:

Math anxiety Lack of confidence Lack of prior knowledge Lack of perseverance

Sound familiar?

The EMI project hopes to mitigate some of these obstacles. Why are we involved? To get more students into engineering. Specifically, the goal of the EMI project is to increase the number of students from under-represented populations who enter and successfully complete undergraduate engineering programs. Such a lofty goal requires the coordination and effort of a number of College of Engineering organizations and the Austin Independent School District. This article focuses on just one aspect of this multi-faceted project.

We were fortunate to already have a program within the College that can be adapted for this purpose. Design Technology and Engineering for America's Children (DTEACh) has a successful history of generating enthusiasm in elementary science teachers by empowering them to use hands-on, project-based instruction. The program will now be redesigned to tackle the challenges faced by secondary math teachers. Mechanical Engineering professor Rich Crawford, one of the initiators of DTEACh, is leading the redesign effort. "Through DTEACh, we have seen the value of teaching mathematics and science within the context of everyday technology," says Crawford. "This approach not only addresses anxiety and confidence issues, but provides a natural answer to that inevitable question from students: 'Why do I need to learn this?' "

This three-year project was launched in March. We have already initiated a dialogue with teachers at the targeted schools and are planning for fall events. The Faculty Innovation Center is managing and evaluating the EMI project, as well as building a project dissemination web site. Look for it this fall.