Showing papers in "Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research in 2015"
TL;DR: The Maker Movement is a community of hobbyists, tinkerers, engineers, hackers, and artists who creatively design and build projects for both playful and useful ends as discussed by the authors, and there is growing interest among educators in bringing making into K-12 education to enhance opportunities to engage in the practices of engineering, specifically, and STEM more broadly.
Abstract: The Maker Movement is a community of hobbyists, tinkerers, engineers, hackers, and artists who creatively design and build projects for both playful and useful ends. There is growing interest among educators in bringing making into K-12 education to enhance opportunities to engage in the practices of engineering, specifically, and STEM more broadly. This article describes three elements of the Maker Movement, and associated research needs, necessary to understand its promise for education: 1) digital tools, including rapid prototyping tools and low-cost microcontroller platforms, that characterize many making projects; 2) community infrastructure, including online resources and in-person spaces and events; and 3) the maker mindset, aesthetic principles, and habits of mind that are commonplace within the community. It further outlines how the practices of making align with research on beneficial learning environments.
387 citations
TL;DR: A review of the literature concerning effective professional development for teachers of engineering, both as a unique discipline and as a context for teaching and learning in other subjects, can be found in this article.
Abstract: The past 30 years have yielded a mature body of research regarding effective professional development for teachers of science and mathematics, leading to a robust selection of professional development programs for these teachers. The current emphasis on connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics underscores the need for similar research into the nature of effective professional development for teachers of engineering. With this in mind, this paper completes a review of the literature concerning effective professional development for teachers of engineering, both as a unique discipline and as a context for teaching and learning in other subjects. The results of this review serve as the foundation for five research-based design standards for professional development initiatives in the field of engineering education, which have been published on the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) website along with a matrix that will enable providers and consumers of engineering professional development to determine the extent to which a given program focuses on each of those standards.
36 citations
TL;DR: This article examined middle school teachers' beliefs about seven learning outcomes related to a project that involves developing and examining the effects of a set of engineering design modules constructed for use by middle school math and science teachers.
Abstract: The present study examines middle school teachers’ beliefs about seven learning outcomes related to a project that involves developing and examining the effects of a set of engineering design modules constructed for use by middle school math and science teachers. Overall, the teachers involved in the intervention appear to believe they have the instructional skills, professional development, and resources to carry out the modules. Teachers from all of the schools (both intervention and comparison schools) for the most part valued the outcomes as important. Results of the study indicate that, although teachers believe they value and can obtain most of these outcomes; beliefs vary by school and other factors. One area where teachers do not seem strongly efficacious in some schools is that of fostering intrinsic motivation in their students. Teachers in one of the schools where the modules were implemented did not feel their students were capable of becoming intrinsically motivated. The implications for implementing engineering education in middle school of these beliefs and other attitudes are discussed.
34 citations
TL;DR: This article used discourse analysis techniques to examine whether and why students integrate math and science concepts into their engineering design work, and found that students successfully applied math, science, and engineering concepts without teacher prompting when the concepts were familiar, but explicit teacher prompting and instruction did not seem to facilitate student use of those concepts.
Abstract: Engineering in K-12 classrooms has been receiving expanding emphasis in the United States. The integration of science, mathematics, and engineering is a benefit and goal of K-12 engineering; however, current empirical research on the efficacy of K-12 science, mathematics, and engineering integration is limited. This study adds to this growing field, using discourse analysis techniques to examine whether and why students integrate math and science concepts into their engineering design work. The study focuses on student work during a unit from a high school engineering course. Video data were collected during the unit and were used to identify episodes of students discussing math and science concepts. Using discourse analysis, the authors found that students successfully applied math and science concepts to their engineering design work without teacher prompting when the concepts were familiar. However, explicit teacher prompting and instruction regarding the integration of less familiar concepts did not seem to facilitate student use of those concepts. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study was conducted to measure how participating in a week long engineering summer camp affected middle school students' attitudes towards engineering and their conceptions of engineering and technology, and the results indicated that participation in the programs had a positive impact on the students' understandings of what technology is and the work engineers do.
Abstract: Students’ knowledge about a profession influences their future decisions about careers. Research indicates that students tend to hold stereotypical views of engineers, which would hinder engineering as a career choice. The purpose of this study was to measure how participating in a week long engineering summer camp affected middle school students’ (N519) attitudes towards engineering and their conceptions of engineering and technology. Results indicate that participation in the programs had a positive impact on the students’ understandings of what technology is and the work engineers do. Although the results indicate a positive impact on participants, it is not clear which components of the camp contributed to this change. The partnership between practicing middle school teachers and engineering faculty was important to the success of the camp, revealing the benefits of collaborative efforts between K-12 educators and engineering professionals.
27 citations
TL;DR: Beyond Blackboards as discussed by the authors is an inquiry-centered, after-school program designed to enhance middle school students' engagement with engineering through design-based experiences focused on the 21st Century Engineering Challenges.
Abstract: Beyond Blackboards is an inquiry-centered, after-school program designed to enhance middle school students' engagement with engineering through design-based experiences focused on the 21st Century Engineering Challenges Set within a predominantly low-income, majority-minority community, our study aims to investigate the impact of Beyond Blackboards on students' interest in and understanding of engineering, as well as their ability to align their educational and career plans We compare participants' and nonparticipants' questionnaire responses before the implementation and at the end of the program's first academic year Statistically significant findings indicate a school-wide increase in students' interest in engineering careers, supporting a shift in school culture However, only program participants showed increased enjoyment of design-based strategies, understanding of what engineers do, and awareness of the steps for preparing for an engineering career These quantitative findings are supported by qualitative evidence from participant focus groups highlighting the importance of mentors in shaping students' awareness of opportunities within engineering
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a 6-week program to train math/science teachers to teach high school design engineering was presented. But the focus of the program was not on design, but on the ability of teachers to apply knowledge in innovative ways as well as recall facts and solve problems.
Abstract: Although the consensus seems to be that high-school-level introductory engineering courses should focus on design, this creates a problem for teacher training. Traditionally, math and science teachers are trained to teach and assess factual knowledge and closed-ended problemsolving techniques specific to a particular discipline, which is unsuited for teaching design skills for open-ended problems that may involve multiple engineering disciplines. Instead, engineering teacher training should use the more fluid framework of adaptive expertise which values the ability to apply knowledge in innovative ways as well as recall facts and solve problems using conventional techniques. In this study, we examined a 6-week program to train math/science teachers to teach high school design engineering. For each curriculum unit, we had a pre-posttest to assess the teachers’ factual knowledge and ability to solve typical problems (termed ‘‘efficiency’’) and their ability to apply their knowledge to reason through open-ended problems (termed ‘‘innovation’’). In addition, we conducted a pre-posttest to see whether teachers’ attitudes and beliefs related to adaptive expertise changed over the course of the program.
16 citations
TL;DR: High school students understood the need for information, as they sought a large volume of information, which they did, generally, incorporate in their solution development process, but their skill in locating high-quality information was relatively poor.
Abstract: This study measured the information gathering behaviors of high school students who had taken engineering design courses as they solved a design problem. The authors investigated what types of information students accessed, its quality, when it was accessed during the students’ process, and if it impacted their thinking during the activity. Students overwhelmingly relied on internet searching to acquire information, rather than printed materials available to them. The sites they found were generally popular rather than technical, and persuasive (i.e., trying to sell something) rather than informative. The high school students understood the need for information, as they sought a large volume of information, which they did, generally, incorporate in their solution development process, but their skill in locating high-quality information was relatively poor.
6 citations