There is strong evidence to suggest that if a child's interest in science and mathematics has not been stimulated by the 4th or 5th grade, you may have lost the opportunity to do so (Prism, January 2001).  Since engineering is mainly composed of science and mathematics, the industry has lost its potential entrants at a very early age. Based on this realization, the idea of the Sooner Elementary Engineering and Science (SeeS) Club was formed in January, 2001, at McKinley Elementary in Norman, Oklahoma. Therefore, programs aimed at the junior high and high school levels can be targeted at the population of students that have already made a decision and are interested.  Unfortunately, this is where the majority of the nation’s engineering and science recruiting programs are focused.   

Using literature from the American Society for Engineering Education, K-12 Division, monthly programs have been created to target the population of students that are in elementary school.  Several programs like SeeS have been created across the nation, but the majority of these are for “gifted” children and not for the school’s population in general (School District of Affton, Missouri).  Based on the creators’ belief that all students should have access to such programming, the SEES Club is open to all students enrolled at the elementary school.

Planning for the SEES Club began in fall, 2000, and the first meeting with the students was in January, 2001. SeeS chemistry events include learning about mixtures, solutions, and reactions as well as with acids, bases, and pH.  Sequences like this have also been for aeronautics, weather, electricity, and logic. During a meeting, the students are offered multiple stations where different yet related experiments can be performed in a hands-on environment.  The students leave each month with a summary of the topics taught in addition to a list of resources that their parents can obtain from local educational stores. 

The basic format of each meeting is to teach 3 or 4 key words in multiple hands-on experiments.  To date, the manpower used to staff each meeting has come from parent volunteers and OU College of Engineering student volunteers.  Thanks to support provided by the McKinley PTA, we were able to begin the program in 2000.  The PTA provided $200 then and budgeted $250 for SeeS in 2001. The list of supporters is growing in 2002. Most of the curriculum costs are one time costs and the curriculum can be repeated in various formats over several months.  In addition, these resources can be used by site teachers for enhanced programming. 

Norman has fabulous engineering and science resources that just need to be organized.  With teachers already doing all they can to educate our children, parents are an excellent and welcome resource for organizing SeeS resources. The Norman School District Foundation has supported the continuation of this project with a generous grant to help with curriculum and meeting costs. 

We end each SEES meeting by telling the children that we hope they enjoyed their afternoon and we hope to SEES them next month!  And we mean it!