When we were designing the proposal for the Ready for Success grant, we were driven by a number of goals. While one of the main objectives was to reinforce the importance of research skills at all levels of a student’s education, another was to emphasize the fact that research skills are not just for completing classroom assignments. These are skills that will be useful in life – from researching job and career opportunities to looking for places to live, locating reliable health information, and more.
We also tried from the start, when reaching out to Brentwood High School, to work with teachers from as wide a variety of disciplines as we could attract. There can be a perception that research is just for English class or for a specific assignment in a specific grade, not to be reintroduced or reinforced down the line in other classes or subject areas.
All of which is by way of saying we were so grateful we met Jake Mulderig. He teaches in the technology department at Brentwood and, after attending our summer retreat, decided to bring his Principles of Engineering class to SBU Libraries in December of 2022.
Jake had a good existing relationship with his school librarians, and we were able to build on that. He had been working with school media specialist Diane Longo on a research project. Students were researching different engineering and technical fields with an eye towards possible career paths. They were being directed to find things like required certifications, salary ranges, training programs: a well-thought-out and robust assignment.
At Stony Brook, we reinforced what they were working on with a series of activities. We pre-selected a number of articles regarding engineering projects in which experts were quoted. Students had to take the quoted engineer – and any relevant details from the rest of the article – and complete an informational profile on them. They had to find their professional information, education, details on their field of expertise, and additional articles from library databases. In terms of sources, students had free reign to consult online sources – which we reviewed together.
As with all classes during this project, we incorporated the use of library databases. We made a point throughout to emphasize the role of licensed databases as sources – and the role that libraries play in providing them. This included talking through Stony Brook’s databases as well as Brentwood High School’s Virtual Reference Collection (VRC), their local public library, and even the fact that, as New York State residents, they’re eligible for New York Public Library cards.
Another aspect of Jake’s class that we loved – and something that we saw throughout the other visits – was that the students were just as curious about being on a college campus as about the in-class activities. (And lunch – they were all curious about lunch.) As time permitted, we took classes on a tour of the library. This group of future engineers got to check out our science and technology sections along with some of our study spaces. Curiosity satisfied, it was then off to lunch.
