‘Traveling’ Engineering Activity Kit Will Bring RIT to Middle and High Schools

Rochester Institute of Technology is developing a traveling engineering activity kit to educate middle and high school students about energy-related careers in engineering. The teaching aid, being designed this school year by a multidisciplinary engineering senior design team of six students, will be loaned to local schools, scout troops and RIT groups involved in outreach.

To help create the kit, Elizabeth DeBartolo, RIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received a $5,000 grant from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc.

The kit will serve those limited by a lack of transportation or resources by bringing activities into the community rather than bringing the community to RIT, DeBartolo says. The easily transportable kit will feature engineering and science experiments related to energy and the environment, and it will be designed so that teachers and parent volunteers lacking technical expertise will feel comfortable working on projects with students.

Margaret Bailey, RIT associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Jacqueline Mozrall, RIT associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, are also involved with the project.

Note: RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering is among the nation’s top-ranked engineering colleges. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in applied statistics, engineering science, and computer, electrical, industrial and systems, mechanical, and microelectronic engineering and a doctoral degree in microsystems engineering. RIT was the first university to offer undergraduate degrees in microelectronic and software engineering.