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Teacher:
Barbara Anne
Fisher
Faculty:
Stephen Sundarrao
College of Engineering (Research
Experience for Teachers)
Tel: (813) 758-0553
Tel: (813) 974-5346
Email:
DreamerBaf@aol.com
Email:
sundarra@usf.edu
Project Summary:
The
purpose of this project is to design and develop a mentoring program for Wilson
Middle School students that will address ‘real world problems’ encountered by
individuals with disabilities. Middle school students participating in this
program will experience what it would be like to have a specific disability
(i.e.: confined to a wheelchair with limited mobility of their arms), and will
then define task-oriented problems encountered by a person with such a
disability in the course of daily living. Each student will identify a specific
task-oriented problem, and will select an appropriate national competition
(i.e.: ExploraVision, Intel Science and Engineering Fair, Sears-Craftsman Young
Inventors Competition, etc.) that will provide the format by which to develop
concepts and prototypes of products to provide a solution for their identified
problem. RET faculty and graduate students will provide on-going mentoring
support during the duration of the Student Educational Research Mentoring
Program. The culminating activities for the program will include participation
in the USF Engineering Expo and the entry of the completed project in the
selected national competition.
Goals & Objectives
The first major goal of this RET project is to
strengthen and broaden the interaction between Wilson Middle School teachers and
students and USF’s Rehabilitation Engineering and Technology program, thereby
enhancing the community outreach of RETP.
The
second major goal of this RET project is to increase the awareness of Wilson
Middle School teachers and students about career potentials within the field of
Rehabilitation Engineering and Technology.
The objectives designed to meet
these two goals are:
·
The development of the “Student Educational Research
Mentoring Program” which will become an integral part of the USF
Engineering Expo.
·
Through participation in the “Student Educational
Research Mentoring Program,” interaction between Wilson Middle School teachers
and students and the Rehabilitation Engineering and Technology Program at USF
will increase by providing students and teachers with training and on-going
mentoring/support for the duration of “SERMP”.
·
Structuring the individual projects of the “SERMP”
participants according to the guidelines for the national competition in which
they choose to enter their finished concepts/prototypes.
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