Edu/Teacher-Preneur Profile — Yvonne Ng
Blog or Website: Engineer’s Playground
URL: www.engineersplayground.com
How do you define yourself as an Edupreneur?
After over 10 years in higher ed teaching teachers about engineering and computer science, I have found that the university structure does not move fast enough for the needs of the teachers.
From an independent position, I can offer teachers the same practical, cost-effective lessons and curriculum at reasonable prices. Moreover, I can more easily move into more modern modes of delivery such as on-demand webinars, blog posts, and web references.
How and when did you make the leap from being a more traditional educator to seeing yourself as an edupreneur?
I started off as an engineer, having about 8 years in consulting and contracting, so entrepreneurial ventures were part of how I did my job. After working and learning about education in the university setting, my entrepreneurial background started poking its head out, saying (as entrepreneurs do) “You know, we can do this better, and make a living off of it.”
What benefits have you gained from being an edupreneur?
Connections and real conversations with the people I serve. I love talking with teachers about their hopes and their passions. Often, my job is to have the realize all that they are already doing in STEM, connect that to some aspects (usually technology and engineering) that are missing, and show how they can integrate the lessons and activities to get the full power of STEM-education, not just add on another activity that is an island.
What challenges have you faced as an edupreneur?
Asking to be paid! I love this so much, I would do it for free if I could because STEM is something that requires a concerted effort. I do make an effort to make the consulting affordable, and the products I sell have a small profit margin.
What advice do you have for aspiring edupreneurs?
As boring as it sounds, making a rough business plan in important to see whether you can at least break even. The book, The Art of the Start, gives a good rule of thumb on how to determine whether you should even start:
- Figure out the costs to run your company, required overhead, cost of goods, etc.,
- Figure the price you will charge for your goods or services,
- Divide the costs by the price and get the number of goods you need to sell to break even,
- Ask yourself if that is reasonable.
Self-promotion: Tell us exactly what you do as an edupreneur and how/where we can learn more about your work or services.
Yvonne Ng is an engineering education specialist, consultant and author who combines practical insights with creative approaches to training teachers and students, and developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum for schools. After more than a decade as a mechanical engineer, Ng shifted her focus to education, joining St. Catherine’s University, a women’s college in St. Paul, Minnesota, as an assistant professor of computer science and engineering in 2000. She became Interim Executive Director of the school’s National Center for STEM Elementary Education in 2012.
Ng has played a key role in St. Catherine’s groundbreaking Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives. She helped develop the university’s interdisciplinary STEM curriculum, which includes graduate certificates in STEM for both traditional and Montessori teachers — the first program of its kind in the nation.
Ng is the author of the book Engineering for the Uninitiated: Discover If Engineering Is Right for Your Child, designed to help adults recognize and encourage young engineers. She also co-edited She’s an Engineer? Princeton Alumnae Reflect, in which female engineers share their stories of working in the field.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and a master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota.
In 2011, Ng founded the company Engineer’s Playground to help make engineering accessible to a wider audience of students. Young children are natural engineers, constantly figuring out how to do things ( make toys for themselves, get access to a place up high, or finding the right tool that will let them do what they want to do) , and Engineer’s Playground offers STEM instructors resources (STEM Exploration Activities for middle and high school students, ME Robots: Mechanical Engineering Basics for elementary and middle school teachers and parents, Bringing STEM to Light lessons teaching the basics of LASER safety while showing other uses for that knowledge or the skills developed for 7th-12th grade students), advice, and lesson plans through the Website, books, and custom consulting. Ng’s goal is to help inspire future generations of engineers at a time when STEM skills are in high demand.
Learn more about STEM at different levels from Early Childhood through High School at www.engineersplayground.com or follow the blog: engineersplayground.blogspot.com
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