Newton's New 'Fashioneering' Course Aims to Draw More Female Engineering Students

What do you get when you combine clothing and costume design with new technology and engineering skills? 

"Fashioneering," of course. 

Starting next school year, Newton North will be offering a newly-designed Fashioneering course, a class that teachers hope will help bring more females into the high school's engineering program.

"We're aiming to teach kids to think more about making things on their own, and we're trying to attract more girls into the engineering program," Newton North engineering teacher Kevin Brosnan told Newton Patch.

According to Brosnan, female students make up between 15-20 percent of the school's engineering program, with the number of girls varying from course to course. 

Ideally, Brosnan said the school would like the engineering program to be split more 50/50 between male and female students.

"Engineering opens up more pathways in education for both boys and girls," Brosnan said. "There is so much you can do with engineering after college."

Brosnan, who worked as an engineer before becoming a teacher, said the course will explore the intersection of technology and different types of clothing, textiles and jewelry. 

For example, students could design Halloween costumes and incorporate some type of technology into the outfit, Brosnan said. Another idea is allowing students to use 3-D printers to design patterns for shoes or clothing. 

"It's about letting kids bringing the creativity to it, seeing what ideas they have," Brosnan said.

Sports and athletic wear is another avenue the course may explore, Brosnan said, including different types of technologies and materials that could be used to help improve performance or safety.

At Northeastern University, for example, some engineering students are working on athletic wear that shows how many muscles are activated while the person is exercising, Brosnan said. 

"It's ideas like incorporating electronics into athletic wear or coming up with a different way to make reflective gear for runners or bicyclists," Brosnan said. "I'm a runner and I'm always wondering how to achieve something like that."

The Fashioneering class will join North's robust engineering program that already offers unique courses like Greengineering and Robotics.

"There are so many avenues to explore [at Newton North] and to figure out what you're good at...and investigate what you want to do in college," Brosnan said. "To be able to offer [high school] students those opportunities is exciting."

Brosnan said he has been working with career and tech ed teacher Scott Rosenhahn and Science/Technology Department Head Amy Winston to brainstorm ways to bring girls into the school's engineering program. One of those ideas, the Fashioneering program, was proposed last year. 

After proposing the course, Brosnan and Rosenhahn worked on coming up with a course description and curriculum. Eventually, school officials signed off on the program and the school could start promoting it within the student body.

And students have responded; Brosnan said the school already has three sections of the course set up for next year. 

The course will start as an exploratory that meets twice a week for students grades 10-12. If interest grows, Brosnan said the school and Career/Tech Ed Department could expand the course to meet four times a week.

Brosnan said he is excited about the opportunity to offer this course to Newton North students and is hoping it will be a way to engage "non-traditional" engineering students to try out the program. 

"I'm excited that we have enough of a community to have a new class that is going to attract a new group of students, or students that wouldn't necessarily think of themselves as engineers," Brosnan said.