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Creating the Next Generation of Transportation Professionals

The transportation industry, like every other profession that relies heavily on the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, faces a growing shortage of professional engineers. The purpose of this project was to investigate new methods for conducting educational outreach activities for kindergarten through twelfth grade (K–12) students and compare the effectiveness of various implementation methods. During this project, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers developed two in-class educational outreach modules and several displays that they could easily transport and exhibit at various educational outreach activities. The first in-class module introduces intermediate school students to the world of transportation and transportation engineering and teaches students about the principle of retroreflectivity. The second in-class module teaches kindergarten students about sign shapes and colors. TTI researchers also participated in 12 educational outreach activities. These activities included: four in-school events; four field trips to TTI facilities; three summer activities; and one engineering day event. The students participating in these activities ranged from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The educational outreach activities conducted introduced the fields of transportation and engineering to over 2000 students.