Announcement of Spring 2002 meeting of TYC21-Region 11

 Exploring Ideas on Recruitment and Retention of Students in Engineering, Math & Science  

The spring 2002 meeting of TYC21 Region 11 will be held April 5 and 6 at Central Alabama Community College's Heritage Conference Center in Childersburg, Alabama . A map to the Conference Center is also included. We will have someone at the Childersburg Campus both Friday afternoon at 6:00 PM and at 7:30 Saturday morning to guide people out to the conference center.

At this meeting meals and lodging will be provided at no cost, compliments of CACC.

This Agenda is highly adjustable and definitely not fixed at this point.

Well, we always talked about having a meeting with no agenda so we could just get together and share ideas about what we are doing. This may be it. We don't have enough money left to actually pay a speaker.

However, here are some thoughts.

• Chad Davies suggested last spring that we brainstorm on ideas and actually write grant proposals and send them in at this meeting. At this point that is the agenda.
• Since this country seems to have a perpetual shortage of science and math related professionals, outreach is the key word for the first decade of the new millennium.
• Last spring the main subject of the meeting was Science Teams, outreach programs to third grade classes. This spring the focus will be collaboration between high schools, community colleges, and univeristies to increase enrollment in engineering programs.
• Demand for engineers has increased 2 percent a year over the past twenty years, while enrollment in engineering programs has declined one percent a year over the same period. The National Science Foundation has several grant programs aimed at this problem.
• There is a consortium underway to assist this endeavor. Jim Richardson (University of Alabama Engineering Department) and I have attended two meetings at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on recruitment and retention in engineering programs. He will be at our meeting.

More food for thought.

Grant ideas

More information on the Engineering Conference

Agenda for the July Engineering Conference

An agenda is online as well as an online registration form. We'd prefer that you register online.

Feel free to make suggestions about the agenda.

If you plan to attend the meeting, please fill out the information sheet and return it, or complete the online form, by April 1, 2002, so we can make up packets for meetings and plan meals.

All this information as well as updates can be found under TYC-21/ASAAPT Materials on the CACC Physics Webpage located at http://caccphysics1.cacc.cc.al.us.

Accommodations: The lodge has 11 rooms with two beds, and 6 rooms with single beds, and a 3 bed chalet. All the rooms are nonsmoking. If you are bringing a family and would like a room with two beds let us know. We plan to room two people together. If you require a single room please let us know.

If you have something you could share with us in the sharing session please let me know.

The registration fee is $15.00, but if you could get your college to make the annual $100 donation to our organization that we instigated last spring it would help a lot.

Thanks for your participation, Nick