The US is trying to maintain its competitive edge among industrialnations by training a sufficient number of engineers. However, thenumber of trained individuals graduating from US colleges does not meetour current and projected needs. In addition, the number of females andminority graduates with engineering degrees is unacceptably low and theattrition rate in engineering programs is unacceptably high. The causesinclude: (i) the inadequate preparation of our high school graduates,(ii) unfavorable attitudes toward engineering and other science basedcareers, (iii) the absence of continuity in the transition from highschool to college, and (iv) teacher-centered teaching methods inengineering programs. Some additional preparation for secondary scienceand mathematics teachers as well as high school courses that are morefriendly to engineering and technology would address the first threeabove perceived causes. The use of more student-directed instructionmight address the fourth perceived cause. To this end, it is suggestedthat colleges of engineering and education collaborate to developcapstone courses for secondary science and mathematics pre-service andin-service teachers. To our knowledge, no model has been proposed todesign capstone engineering courses that train pre-service andin-service secondary science and mathematics teachers in engineeringprinciples, practice, design, and problem solving skills. The authorsdescribe a new capstone course
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