California State University, Fresno's engineering professors are working to solve a problem: They don't have enough students.

For one reason or other, high school students can't qualify for or don't choose to enter the College of Engineering and Computer Science to seek their majors.

Engineering faculty members say too few youths, beginning in grade school, accept the challenge of mathematics and science classes that could interest them in engineering.

They also say too many adopt Americans' tendency to let others worry about electricity, highways, airplanes, televisions, defense systems, computer programs, automobiles and water systems, as well as a range of technologies necessary for homeland security.

"Look around you," says professor Masud Mansuri. "There is nothing that engineering didn't make."

So the engineering college is reaching out to high school counselors and students who haven't given up on learning math and science.

The engineering faculty offers high school students one semester of engineering applications, a class that meets one night a week for 16 weeks of hands-on learning about basic fields of engineering.

"This course gives high school students who have math and science aptitude the opportunity to explore engineering," says dean Karl Longley. "What is to their liking?"

The faculty has contacted schools around the Valley, including those in Fresno, Hanford, Visalia, Lemoore and Sanger, but the professors want to hear from more counselors and principals.

They're looking for students interested in testing car shapes in wind tunnels, soldering components of a stop light or designing a Web site. They welcome young people intrigued by the challenge of designing a low-weight model bridge capable of standing up under heavy weight, or students willing to test designs and systems every Tuesday to learn how things work.

The engineering-applications class has had up to 35 students but last semester had just 14. The engineering college could accommodate 200 high school students in the class, Wright says.

The class contributed to a recent increase in the number of engineering undergraduate and graduate students, Longley says. The number increased from 1,150 several years ago to about 1,550.

Longley attributes part of the dearth of engineering students to a "dumbing down" of mathematics and science education in kindergarten through 12th grade. He says the problem developed after World War II and that an aversion to math and science begins in elementary school. He sees the results everywhere.

"You go shopping, and the cashier can't make change," Longley says.

Engineering faculty members wonder how a culture that allows that kind of educational lapse hopes to supply qualified engineering candidates who understand calculus and trigonometry.

"Engineers solve practical problems for the betterment of mankind," said engineering professor Jesus Larralde-Muro, who came to the United States from Mexico. He sees an American cultural distaste for math and science that influences his own children.

"They think it's boring and impossible," Larralde says. "I have to deal with it."