IEEE’s TryEngineering empowers educators and volunteers to foster the next generation of technology innovators. TryEngineering provides quality resources to inspire and engage pre-university students. Engineers and educators across various disciplines helped to create these resources.
TryEngineering and the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) are proud to announce a strategic partnership with the goal of developing high quality pre-university content to inspire and educate the next generation of communications professionals. ComSoc’s experts in communications and networking technology are working with the IEEE Pre-University team to create content for STEM outreach.
Why a Partnership for STEM Outreach?
ComSoc’s interest in STEM outreach at the pre-university level began in 2022. IEEE Volunteers and ComSoc’s Educational Services Board Members, Steve Izzo, Nury Ramirez Cely and Stefano Giordano were at the forefront of this endeavor. Together, they worked to kickoff outreach efforts for school-aged students in the telecommunications field.
“Initially, we looked around at what others were doing,” Mr. Izzo stated about ComSoc’s first steps in STEM outreach. “Our 2022 efforts were essentially copies of what we observed, but do-it-yourself in execution. Through these initial steps, we saw an opportunity to work with TryEngineering on certain products such as grants, content and website distribution.”
Mr. Izzo also had the opportunity to elaborate on the value of a society collaborating with TryEngineering during the 2022 IEEE Pre-University STEM Summit where he was selected as a presenter during the Societies Panel Discussion. When asked what he considered to be positive outcomes from ComSoc’s engagement with TryEngineering, Mr. Izzo emphasized how valuable it can be for a society to leverage what TryEngineering has to offer for outreach.
“[The technical societies] are the experts in the content, but I think TryEngineering knows a lot more about reach and distribution than we do and could ever hope to learn,” Mr. Izzo stated. “I’m hoping that’s the foundation of our partnership going forward.”
TryEngineering also benefits from growing a mutual partnership with technical societies. The brand seeks to ignite the interest of school-aged children in STEM and inspire them to cultivate engineering habits of the mind. This can be achieved by providing top quality products and services in STEM outreach. Technical societies such as ComSoc can provide this expertise to help craft a reputable brand of resources such as lesson plans, hands-on activities, communications engineering career profiles, and more.
“Partnering with Technical Societies is critical for Pre-University” stated Stamatis Dragoumanos, Chair, Pre-University Education Coordination Committee (PECC). “While they are the experts on technical content, PreU provides STEM pedagogy and curriculum development experience. With our strengths combined, we will not only draw the interest of school-aged children to STEM, but we will also provide the so-needed self-confidence and support to educators to effectively teach that kind of advanced content.”
ComSoc’s strategy is to bring unique content innovation from the society while expanding membership and reach through a partnership with TryEngineering. They hope to be a model for other societies by showing how both partners can mutually benefit. As a society, they can leverage the distribution and experience of TryEngineering in their STEM outreach efforts. By providing a platform for societies to share their expertise through content, TryEngineering can build a robust collection of products and services that will help build and empower the next generation of engineers.
TryEngineering Telecommunications Engineering Webpage
The partnership between TryEngineering and ComSoc offers pre-university resources that focus on communications and networking technologies. To help better navigate all of the resources that ComSoc has to offer for Pre-University STEM education, TryEngineering is launching the TryEngineering Telecommunications Engineering Webpage. This resource will help pre-university level students find all of the Tryengineering telecommunications-themed resources in a one stop shop.
IEEE Communications Society on TryEngineering
Resources Found on TryEngineering Telecommunications Engineering Webpage
TryEngineering Tuesday
TryEngineering Tuesday was the first TryEngineering resource that allowed partnered TryEngineering and ComSoc to begin their partnership. TryEngineering Tuesday was a monthly blog and webinar series featuring an IEEE technical society with related activities for school-aged students. Educators, volunteers, and parents could reward students for the progress they made using TryEngineering Tuesday Badges. ComSoc partnered with TryEngineering to help create and present many of the TryEngineering Tuesday editions including 5G, Extended Reality and 5G, and The Metaverse: How Communications Engineering is Shaping Our Future.
Hands On Activities
This page will also introduce TryEngineering hands-on activities. ComSoc drove this initiative by hosting a competition for its members to submit pre-university hands-on activities with a theme in telecommunications engineering. ComSoc members including a PECC representative reviewed and selected the activities to feature on the partner website. These activities will allow teachers or students to leverage a hands-on approach to learning in the best way for them. They can be utilized on their own or as an extension to a deeper lesson plan. In the first featured hands-on activity, “How Do Mobile Phones Communicate?” students emulate in a practical way how information is transmitted in wireless communications.
Lesson Plans
TryEngineering Lesson Plans teach engineering concepts to your students, aged 4 to 18. Our lesson plans are easy to use and include student handouts and worksheets to print out. All lesson plans are peer reviewed by pre-university teachers. Many of our lesson plans are tailored to the theme of communications engineering, such as lessons like Electric Messages: Then and Now, Radio Reception and Transmission, and Search Engines. Additionally, ComSoc has worked to bring curated lessons from other STEM educator supporters, with lesson plans from both TeachEngineering and Verizon.
TryEngineering Volunteer STEM Portal Programs
TryEngineering.org launched the IEEE Pre-University Volunteer STEM Portal in 2021 to support IEEE volunteers in their STEM outreach initiatives, as well as build local STEM communities. The IEEE Pre-University STEM Grant Program supports proponents of STEM outreach who are looking to share, give back, and inspire. IEEE STEM outreach grants funded 48 programs in 2021 and 2022. Additionally this year, IEEE Communications Society provided up to $1,500 to be awarded to grant programs with a communications engineering focus. Congratulations to the following program recipients:
- IoT Workshop – Learn, Create and Innovate ($992.71) IEEE Student Branch, RVCE, R10
- IEEE Ecuador STEM Camps ($500) IEEE Ecuador Section, R9