Paper Title
Algae Based K-12 Education

Abstract
Algae based hands on K-12 education activities were developed and implemented to expose middle school students and educators to engineering careers and challenges. The activities were also integrated with concepts from the humanities such as ethics, racial and gender biases, history of civilization and public policy. The project involves hands on experiments, data collection and analyses along with technical writing in the form of a report and formal oral presentations. The activities were also developed to meet the New Jersey Next Generation Science Standards. An interactive game titled "Algae City" was also developed. Results indicate that the students were excited by the project and assessment data indicated that the interest in pursuing engineering as a career increased after participation in the project. Index Terms - Algae, Project Based Learning, Engineering, Education