Chips for everyone – developing creativity in engineering and initial teacher education

This paper reports on a novel method to encourage creative participation in engineering for undergraduate students by involving them in the development of public engagement activities. It presents and evaluates workshops undertaken as part of ‘Chips for everyone’ and its successor ‘Chips with relish’, two projects funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under their Partnerships for Public Engagement (PPE) funding programme. The projects have developed workshops and drop-in events for diverse audiences ranging from school groups to shopping centre customers. The subject focus of the projects is semiconductor technology - a technology that influences the daily lives of everyone and yet is largely unseen. The activities sought to engage, engender interest and promote informed discussion about this technology and about engineering in general. The development method for the activities was innovative and creative, using the complementary skills of research academics and students in both electronic engineering and technology initial teacher education (ITE). Recent developments using this method with external partners in other subjects have also been successful.