Living in the Adirondack Park and being an avid outdoorsman has often resulted in the author's love of the outdoors working its way into class projects. In 2010, the author gave a group of 25 students in grades 9-12 a challenge that required them to design and construct a prototype inexpensive, lightweight kayak for backpackers and fisherman. In…

A project-based design course is developed for man-portable power generation via microfabricated fuel cell systems. Targeted audience are undergraduate chemical/process engineering students in their final year. The course covers 6 weeks, with three hours of lectures per week. Two alternative projects are developed, one focusing on selection of…

Problem-based learning has been at the core of significant developments in engineering education in recent years. This term refers to any learning environment in which the problem drives the learning, because it is posed in such a way that students realize they need to acquire new knowledge before the problem can be solved. This paper presents the…

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center along with their partners at other NASA centers, and in private industry, are designing and beginning to develop the next generation of spacecraft to transport cargo, equipment, and human explorers to space. These vehicles are part of the Constellation…

Discusses the current status and major issues affecting the quality and size of the human resources pool of scientists, engineers, and technical personnel. Indicates the role and strategies the National Science Foundation plans to take to address the deficiences. (RT)