Board 298: Supporting Elementary Engineering Instruction in Rural Contexts Through Online Professional Learning and Modest Supports

Rebekah J Hammack; Julie Robinson; Tugba Boz; Min Jung Lee; Ryan G. Summers; Ashley Iveland; Martha Inouye; Meghan Macias; Maria Zaman; John Galisky; Natalie Johansen

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46874

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Paper Authors

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Rebekah J Hammack Purdue University, West Lafayette orcid.org/0000-0002-8621-1006

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Rebekah Hammack is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at Purdue University. Prior to joining the faculty at Purdue, she was an assistant professor of K-8 Science Education at Montana State University and also served as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings at the National Science Foundation.

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Julie Robinson University of North Dakota

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Dr. Julie Robinson is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota and the Director of UND’s Center for Engineering Education Research. Her research explores strategies for broadening access and participation in STEM, focusing on culturally relevant pedagogy in science and engineering. She also investigates strategies for increasing representation in STEM through teacher professional learning opportunities and by exploring the impact of group gender composition on girls’ motivation and engagement. Dr. Robinson is a PI and Co-PI on several NSF sponsored grant projects which focus on teacher professional learning and self-efficacy with implementing culturally relevant engineering education, connecting to place and community, and centering culture and Indigeneity within STEM education. Dr. Robinson has over twenty years of K – 12 teaching experience, including seven years as a teacher leader of professional development in the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, and in elementary science and engineering pedagogy.

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Tugba Boz Indiana-Purdue University

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Tugba Boz is a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University. In her research, she navigates the complexity of introducing innovative, sustainable STEM practices within varied, particularly rural and Indigenous, educational contexts. Her research interest spans elementary computer science and engineering education, integrated STEM education, and sustainability of teacher PL outcomes.

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Min Jung Lee University of North Dakota

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Ryan G. Summers

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Ryan Summers is Assistant Professor of Secondary Science Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Originally from southern Illinois, Dr. Summers obtained his B.S. in biological sciences, with a minor in chemistry and teacher’s certification, at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL. He taught high school science, array of biology, chemistry, physics and other offerings in rural and suburban settings, before leaving to pursue his graduate studies full time at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Summers completed his Ph.D. in May of 2016 at UIUC in Curriculum & Instruction, in the math, science and technology division with a focus in science education.

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Abstract

Despite the intent to advance engineering education with the NGSS, teachers across all grade levels lack confidence in their engineering content knowledge and pedagogy (Hammack & Ivey, 2019). This dilemma is exacerbated by a lack of quality NGSS-aligned curricular materials that integrate science and engineering at the elementary grades— currently, only one elementary unit reviewed by Achieve has received an NGSS Design Badge that includes engineering (NextGenScience, 2020), and these materials are especially unavailable in schools serving high-needs students (Banilower, 2019). Implementation research now acknowledges that contexts and conditions can, and often do, affect the enactment of innovations and that “improving education requires processes for changing individuals, organizations, and systems” (Century & Cassata, 2016, p. 172). Due to geographic location and, often, smaller collegial networks of teachers who teach science, and engineering, rural schools encounter acute challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers (Arnold et al., 2005) and providing content-specific Professional Learning (PL) (Harmon & Smith, 2007). The goal of this NSF DRK12 multi-institution project is to longitudinally investigate the impacts, sustainability, and costs of NGSS implementation, especially in rural contexts. Our approach differs from most interventions in that it is tailored to rural educators in grades 3–5 and offers curriculum-agnostic, fully online PL that supports teachers in utilizing resources and phenomena found in their local contexts to develop and implement engaging, NGSS-aligned engineering instruction. Our intervention began with a five-day (i.e., weeklong) online PL experience in the summer of 2023 for grades 3–5 teachers in each of four western states. Examples of PL sessions provided include: (1) an overview of three-dimensional learning and phenomena-based instruction; (2) a deep dive into the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs); (3) instructional practices that encourage equitable student participation and epistemic agency; and (4) building understanding and comfort with NGSS-aligned engineering and design-based instruction for the elementary grades. The initial intensive PL experience had immediate positive impacts on grades 3–5 teachers’ attitudes and efficacy for teaching engineering. We are now exploring how modest supports influence the sustainability of these changes. Over the 2023-2024 academic year, we are providing teachers with a menu of modest supports including: three 90-minute-long online PL meetings each semester, materials for teaching a locally focused engineering design task, and access to a variety of electronic supports (e.g., Google Classroom Site, shared resources). The fall semester online meetings have focused on supporting teachers to identify connections to science and engineering in their school’s community and how to develop NGSS-aligned engineering design tasks that connect to their local communities. Teachers will be implementing their engineering lessons during December 2023 and January 2024.

Citation
Format

Hammack, R. J., & Robinson, J., & Boz, T., & Lee, M. J., & Summers, R. G., & Iveland, A., & Inouye, M., & Macias, M., & Zaman, M., & Galisky, J., & Johansen, N. (2024, June), Board 298: Supporting Elementary Engineering Instruction in Rural Contexts Through Online Professional Learning and Modest Supports Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46874

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -       Despite the intent to advance engineering education with the NGSS, teachers across all grade levels lack confidence in their engineering content knowledge and pedagogy (Hammack &amp;amp; Ivey, 2019). This dilemma is exacerbated by a lack of quality NGSS-aligned curricular materials that integrate science and engineering at the elementary grades— currently, only one elementary unit reviewed by Achieve has received an NGSS Design Badge that includes engineering (NextGenScience, 2020), and these materials are especially unavailable in schools serving high-needs students (Banilower, 2019). Implementation research now acknowledges that contexts and conditions can, and often do, affect the enactment of innovations and that “improving education requires processes for changing individuals, organizations, and systems” (Century &amp;amp; Cassata, 2016, p. 172). Due to geographic location and, often, smaller collegial networks of teachers who teach science, and engineering, rural schools encounter acute challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers (Arnold et al., 2005) and providing content-specific Professional Learning (PL) (Harmon &amp;amp; Smith, 2007). The goal of this NSF DRK12 multi-institution project is to longitudinally investigate the impacts, sustainability, and costs of NGSS implementation, especially in rural contexts. Our approach differs from most interventions in that it is tailored to rural educators in grades 3–5 and offers curriculum-agnostic, fully online PL that supports teachers in utilizing resources and phenomena found in their local contexts to develop and implement engaging, NGSS-aligned engineering instruction.
      Our intervention began with a five-day (i.e., weeklong) online PL experience in the summer of 2023 for grades 3–5 teachers in each of four western states. Examples of PL sessions provided include: (1) an overview of three-dimensional learning and phenomena-based instruction; (2) a deep dive into the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs); (3) instructional practices that encourage equitable student participation and epistemic agency; and (4) building understanding and comfort with NGSS-aligned engineering and design-based instruction for the elementary grades. The initial intensive PL experience had immediate positive impacts on grades 3–5 teachers’ attitudes and efficacy for teaching engineering. We are now exploring how modest supports influence the sustainability of these changes. Over the 2023-2024 academic year, we are providing teachers with a menu of modest supports including: three 90-minute-long online PL meetings each semester, materials for teaching a locally focused engineering design task, and access to a variety of electronic supports (e.g., Google Classroom Site, shared resources). The fall semester online meetings have focused on supporting teachers to identify connections to science and engineering in their school’s community and how to develop NGSS-aligned engineering design tasks that connect to their local communities. Teachers will be implementing their engineering lessons during December 2023 and January 2024.
   

AU  - Rebekah J Hammack
AU  - Julie Robinson
AU  - Tugba Boz
AU  - Min Jung Lee
AU  - Ryan G. Summers
AU  - Ashley Iveland
AU  - Martha Inouye
AU  - Meghan Macias
AU  - Maria Zaman
AU  - John Galisky
AU  - Natalie Johansen
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 298: Supporting Elementary Engineering Instruction in Rural Contexts Through Online Professional Learning and Modest Supports
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/46874
ER  -