Building a Bridge to the Future
Authors: Garland Patricia Welesko 
Published: February 2015

SPE is a sponsoring society of Engineers Week 2006 (19–25 February), which raises public awareness of engineers' positive contributions to our quality of life and promotes engineering careers to students. SPE encourages all sections and chapters to undertake career events in local schools during Engineers Week.

Each February, Engineers Week reaches students, teachers, parents, and community groups to promote recognition of the importance of a technical education and a high level of math, science, and technology literacy. We want to motivate youths to pursue engineering careers in order to provide a diverse, vigorous, and informed engineering workforce.

The "We" in Week is a formal coalition of more than 70 engineering, education, and cultural societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Founded in 1951 by the Natl. Soc. of Professional Engineers, Engineers Week traditionally is celebrated at the time of George Washington's birthday in February, honoring the first U.S. President, a military engineer and land surveyor. But Engineers Week has expanded beyond its U.S. roots.

Recognizing that engineering is a global enterprise for the benefit of a global community, Engineers Week programs and materials are accessible to those outside the U.S. as well. The Engineers Week model that has been successful in the U.S. is being used in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. Most recently, an outreach program called "Shape the Future" was launched in the U.K. The "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" event launched in 2001 is growing throughout the world. We will hold our second 24-hour online "Global Marathon for, by, and About Women in Engineering" on 24 March 2006.

At www.eweek.org, you will find translations of hands-on activities to conduct with young students in Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, German, and Russian. We are working to translate additional information.

Reaching Out to Educators

A new project to reach teachers is being launched in 2006 called "Connecting Educators to Engineering." Where prior outreach efforts had focused directly on students, influencing the lives of tens of thousands, "Connecting Educators to Engineering" will form new relationships with tens of thousands of teachers, guidance counselors, and school administrators. In that way, we hope to influence the future academic paths of millions of students. For added impact, we are focusing on the middle school years (ages 12–14), because this is the formative period that researchers have determined to be pivotal to the development of future math, science, and technology majors.

In concept, "Connecting Educators to Engineering" is simple. Working scientists, engineers, and advanced technologists contact local middle school educators to:Build engineering concepts into the existing curriculum.Develop new technical curricula.Serve as role models for students.Speak to classes about the true nature of modern engineering work and the realities of the engineering workplace.Organize after-class activities and field trips.Serve as technical resources and advisers.