New Programs and Initiatives

By Marie-Claude Brossard

Curriculum-linked Canadian Educational Resources Help Students Discover Engineering

High school science teachers can now meet their learning objectives with the help of a free, interactive educational resource designed to encourage their students to consider a career in engineering by understanding the link between science and engineering.

Launched October 3, 2002, Generation-E: A New Brand of Engineer features teaching and guidance material for Grades 9 to 12 that are designed to meet the standards of the Pan-Canadian Science Curriculum and the science curricula of each province and territory.

“Canada is the third largest exporter of engineering talent in the world,” said Claude Paul Boivin, President of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada, lead organization on the initiative. “Yet it’s our sense that at home, many creative young people aren’t looking at engineering as a career because they might not consider it interesting or exciting.”

Attracting young people to engineering is key. The Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada had noted that fewer engineers were choosing to enter the consulting engineering business. At the same time, The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers was concerned about the results of federal government research showing that by 2011, Canada will be facing a shortage of skilled workers in all fields. The engineering profession could help meet the objectives of the Skills Agenda – created to address workforce issues – by attracting talented students to careers in engineering.

In addition, it was felt that many students were not considering engineering as a career because they thought it focussed solely on math and science, when instead, the best engineers are well-rounded individuals with diverse skill sets.

“The Government of Canada is determined to include all of Canada’s young people in the opportunities of the knowledge-based economy,” said the Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada. “Our priority is to help ensure that Canadian youth are able to fully develop their skills and talents. They are the workers of the future. Our economy and society will depend on their success.”

The result of two years of effort on the part of engineers, teachers, students, guidance counselors, engineers and career professionals, the Generation-E campaign encourages students to understand the link between items they see around them everyday and the talent of Canadian engineers, and to then consider becoming an engineer themselves. Hockey helmets, pacemakers, walkie-talkies and wind turbines are just four examples of Canadian engineering ingenuity.

That ingenuity is represented in the Generation-E campaign by “Jenni”, a female character created to anchor the student portion of the program. Strong, independent and smart she is meant to embody the new brand of engineer and will appear on the students’ interactive website, and on the large classroom poster that outlines hands-on science projects – projects that challenge students to work in teams and think creatively, much like professional engineers.

“In developing the teacher’s materials we knew that we had to create something that linked engineering to science, and specifically to teachers’ curriculum objectives,” said Heather Mace, a science teacher in the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. “We’ve done that by linking the science projects to the specific learning objectives of every province and territory – a level of detail teachers don’t often find in their resources.”

The Generation-E program consists of three main components:

A teacher’s kit featuring four hands-on projects linking science and engineering, and meeting the curriculum objectives in each province and territory. The kit also contains tracking sheets so students can record their work much like engineers do.

A guidance counsellor kit to help them give students information about the variety and nature of engineering careers.

An Internet site www.generation-e.ca , featuring on-line training for teachers and guidance counsellors but also a section just for students with a comprehensive range of interactive tools and resources about the fascinating world of engineering.

Support from MuchMusic/Musique Plus To mark the launching of this major campaign, the www.generation-e.ca Internet site, in conjunction with MuchMusic/Musique Plus, is running a nation-wide promotion, with $40,000 of computer equipment in prizes. Youth can enter by visiting the Generation-E Internet site today.

Development of Generation-E has been led by the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada through a grant from Human Resources Development Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy. A full list of Steering Committee members is available at www.generation-e.ca/eng/credits.html

For more information:

Marie-Claude Brossard
Generation-E Public Relations
Tel.: (514) 842-1433 ext. 369 or (514) 910-1433

By Pat Barbour

Underachievement is a major problem in many of our nation’s high schools. Often misunderstood, underachievement is thought to be a phase associated with identity and assertion of independence. Too often, this supposed adolescent phase ends long after high school, when the ‘underachiever’ is confined to “dead-end jobs’ earning minimum wages.

Underachievement must be addressed early in the high school years. Delaying counselling the intervention, may mean that the student’s academic studies becomes less rigorous, eliminating post-secondary options. In response, a practical program has been designed and implemented successfully the past four years. The program entitled, “Achievement For All” is conducted in small groups (6 to 8 students). The program consists of five, one hour sessions. Participation is voluntary. Participants are nominated by teachers, parents and via self-referral.

Inspiration comes from an impressive array of brain-based research. Researchers, such as Joan Caulfield, Daniel Goleman, Wayne Jennings and Prsicilla Vail were influential. These authors support the premise that ’emotional intelligence is equally important and an interdependent component of human intelligence’. Acknowledging that ’emotions are ignition, the octane for learning’, dictated the format and design of the underachievement program. Emotions shape our values and choices.

The program at DRHS is designed to promote emotional reaction to ‘underachievement’. It’s critical that students recognize that ‘intelligence quotient’ is not a reliable predictor of personal, academic or vocational success. Students with high emotional intelligence often outperform their peers with supposed ‘higher IQ’s”. The ‘typical underachiever’ is always purported ‘to be a bright kid who just can’t get their act together’. Thus, the focus of the group work is to enhance the student’s level of self-awareness. Self-awareness helps youths gain control over feelings, without this, they sense that others are in control and find external reasons for lagging academic performance.

The primary purpose is to assist students uncover the often ‘covert’ reasons for underachievement. We introduce the group to current research on the psychology of underachievement in search of contributing factors. It is important to erode and possibly eradicate the underachiever’s desire to ‘externalize’. Underachievers see themselves as ‘victims’. External factors, such as peers, family and school, are commonly used reasons. Seldom is personal choice a reason for their academic slump. Ultimately, the young person pays both a personal and vocational price.

Finally, we connect students to the real ‘price of underachievement’, restricted finances and career prospects. Underachievers, forget to redefine themselves in terms of this new reality, diminished career options. Following a battery of interest and skills assessments, participants correlate their academic profile with a career choice. Show time!

Counsellors are encouraged to establish such a program. It is adaptable for multi-level use. It is in use at our local middle school. It is successful in both.

A veteran of the public school system, Pat Barbour, has taught at both the elementary and high school level. Eleven years were spent as a Special Education teacher. He is currently a high school counsellor in Dalhousie, New Brunswick. Mr. Barbour has written articles and given presentations on crisis counselling. E-mail him at: pat.barbour@nbed.nb.ca.

A new resource kit with a video and teacher’s guide encourages rural and urban high school students to consider career opportunities in farming

Jim Laws knows that poor weather has made it a challenging year for farmers in some parts of Canada but he’s determined to get the message out that there is a bright future for young people who are considering a career path in farming or agribusiness.

That’s why the executive director of the Ontario-based Canadian Farm Business Management Council (CFBMC) wants as many students as possible to see a video that his organization has put together with the Ontario Agri-Food Education, Inc. (OAFE).

Case Studies in Agribusiness is a teaching tool that includes a video and study guide aimed at secondary school students. Each of the 13 seven-minute episodes profile farmers in different enterprises across Canada and shows how they’ve managed to achieve success in their operations. Each of the videos is narrated by the producers themselves who attribute their success to leading edge production, human resource management and marketing practices.

Each of the episodes was previously shown on the national television show, Canadian Farm. OAFE selected a variety of the CFBMC farm stories and then produced a teacher’s guide with a narrative description of each farm profile and questions and answers to be used in the classroom to support each of the 13 profiles.

“The resource has been developed for all schools, not just those in rural areas,” says Laws. “If you look at agribusiness across Canada, you’ll see that many new farmers getting into the business weren’t raised on farms at all so we want to show urban students the possibilities that agriculture has to offer.”

Lee Davis, a teacher at the Mountain Secondary School in Hamilton, Ont., knows all about the split between urban and rural. In her seventh year of teaching, Davis teaches food service and baking to a broad mix of students in a vocational setting. Her students come directly from farm backgrounds and from low-income inner city neighbourhoods.

“We have students bused in from rural areas who either live on farms or near them. For the most part, they’ve all worked on farms and many of them will be taking over large-scale potato or vegetable farms. They are the ones who will most likely be involved in farming,” she says.

Davis says that although many of her urban students have never been out of the city limits and some don’t know where food comes from, many of them do realize that their future jobs may be in the ag food sector.

The teaching resource highlights just about every food producing region in the country including a sugar beet producer in Alberta, an egg and broiler operation in the Yukon, community greenhouse in Inuvik, a sheep dairy yogurt farm in British Columbia and a potato, beef and dairy farm in Prince Edward Island.

“It’s a huge country and we have the opportunity here to be able to farm and produce many different commodities,” says Laws.

He says that teachers will be able to use the resource material in conjunction with classes that focus on small businesses, marketing, entrepreneurship and business enterprise.

“It’s really a turn-key classroom,” says Laws.

The video and teacher’s guide kit is available for $19.95. To order a copy of the video or to find out more, contact CFBMC at 1-888-232-3262 or via CFBMC’s Web site – www.farmcentre.com.