ARTICLES
IEEE Teacher in Service Programme (TISP) Activity
By Graeme Gwilliam
Introduction to the IEEE Education Activity Board lesson plans in
the Tryengineering Series
This Australian programme is part of a worldwide initiative by
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
using educational material that is freely available on the internet.
Education lesson plans/modules are available from the website of
“Tryengineering” at (http://www.tryengineering.org/lesson.php)
for the use of teachers. These modules have been developed for
the US education system by a consortium of IEEE and IBM, and
are freely available at the address given.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (IEEE) in
conjunction with IBM, has for some years now been providing
lesson plans of various aspects of STEM education freely to
teachers and others interested in STEM education.
There are about 150 lesson plans grouped into 3 categories.
These lesson plans have been developed to be suitable for
different aged groups of students, and the scope of the exercise
can be controlled to suit any group of students.
These modules are soon to be available aligned to the Australian
National Curriculum, after on-going work in Queensland (carried
out by the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy). At this
time the alignment will be to level 10 only, and again will be
available at no charge.
A list of the lesson plans in each group, with a brief description of
each plan, can be seen at the following addresses;
• Tryengineering
www.tryengineering.org/sites/default/files/Lesson
The programme takes the form of workshops conducted
initially by experienced IEEE trainers for IEEE members. These
workshops are conducted for IEEE members in the form of a
“Train the Trainers” activity, directly for IEEE members who are
interested in promoting the teaching of science and technology
in schools, and take the form of groups participating in a variety
of structured activities as set out in the lesson plans of the
Tryengineering modules.
• Trycomputing
www.trycomputing.org/inspire
• Trynano
www.trynano.org/resources/nanotechnology-lesson-plans
Each lesson plan comes complete with teacher notes, and
student reading material, and is structured to be conducted as
an activity in the classroom. A complete materials list for each
activity kit is also available, using simple items. Each kit should
not cost more than $4.00, and it is usual to be able to re-cycle to
many classes most of the material used.
Having completed a workshop training activity, the IEEE members
are then available to present their information and activities
to groups of experienced school teachers, who in turn will be
enthused to take this material back into their classrooms for the
benefit of their students. IEEE members will have direct contact
only with experienced school teachers.
Access to the lesson plans is available electronically and all can
be printed freely from the above addresses. All are ideal to be
used as resources that can be adapted as may be needed.
An examination of the Tryengineering lesson plans will indicate
the variety of subjects currently available and the inexpensive
material that is used in these workshops, and subsequent training
sessions conducted by IEEE members for schoolteachers, and
school teachers for students.
Although written for USA school students, some have been
aligned to the Australian National Curriculum.
The addresses to find the Australian curriculum aligned lesson
plans are;
For those who are unfamiliar with the function, membership and
structure of the IEEE, information on this organisation can be
obtained from the website www.ieee.org/lesson.php.
http://tryengineering.org/lesson-plans/australia
http://ewh.ieee.org/r10/australia/council/TISP/
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 4