and were also aligned with the state curriculum standards.Guided reflections, team presentations of STEM Curriculum, and developed prototypes providedevidence associated with the objectives. Local System Change (LSC), Mathematics TeachingEfficacy and Beliefs Instrument (MTEBI) and Science Teaching Efficacy and Beliefs Instrument(STEBI) surveys were administered to the in-service teachers prior to the program. Follow-upsurveys were administered to the 2012 cohort and will be administered to the in-service teachersduring the 2013 academic year to identify changes in attitudes, beliefs and practices. Classroomobservations of participants delivering developed STEM content provided details regardingtransference to K-12 classrooms. A focus group
) What are the Constraints of the challenge? (list) EXPANDED DESIGN CHALLENGE: Reword the design challenge to include the specifications and constraints. DESIGN PORTOFOLIO The design portfolio has several elements—challenge (including specifications and constraints), developing knowledge (knowledge and skill builder activities), creating alternative solutions (evaluating trade-‐offs and selecting the optimum solution), building and testing a prototype, evaluating the design and refining the design. There is also a reflection section and an extension section for students
technology professionals at a variety of levels and in avariety of environmental fields1. This type of multidisciplinary, technology-based approach isnot sufficiently reflected in our current educational programs.The classroom integration of sensor development is therefore not only topical but offers highlyinterdisciplinary subject matter, providing motivating scenarios for teaching STEM topics andskill sets. SENSE IT provides students with the opportunity to learn about sensor technologythrough a hands-on, collaborative process of designing, constructing, programming and testingwater quality sensors. Design-based activities such as SENSE IT provide a rich context forlearning and lend themselves to sustained inquiry and revision. Application of
. By their nature, Fermi problems depend on the use of some prior knowledge. Studentsmust be able to perform the following steps: 1) conjure up relevant values such as theapproximate U.S. population or MPG of a car, 2) understand the necessary mathematicaloperations to perform on these values, 3) use those operations in a logical and cohesivemathematical way, and 4) reflect on whether the estimate might or might not be reasonable. Thekinds of problems presented by the 3D Estimator primarily assess students' performance of thethird step, thereby assisting with performance on the fourth. That is, the 3D Estimator assessesstudents' use of mathematical operations and numerical strategies for producing reasonableestimates. Producing reasonable
governing the organization publishing the report, findings and recommendations from unpublished reports cannot be made public. If the report has been published by the Page 23.1279.2time of the June ASEE annual conference, presentation of this paper will be updated to reflect the report’s findings and recommendations. educational programs under a single, recognizable moniker. For the first few years followingNSF’s original usage of STEM, the acronym was used most frequently by
, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Adaptive experts (Hatano & Inagaki, 1986), onthe other hand, are able to think more fluidly and solve problems that they are unfamiliar with(often called “novel problems” in the AE literature), as well as the typical problems in their field.Frequently, adaptive experts actively seek new contexts, reflect on their own understanding, andconsider multiple viewpoints (Bransford et al., 2000; Wineburg, 1998).Engineering can be thought of as the creative application of fundamental principles to solve aproblem given limited resources. Because engineers may be required to solve a different problemunder different limitations each on project, engineering students need to strive to be adaptiveexperts, and engineering
and point across. Watching and interactingwith the teachers was my favorite part because I got to see how they approached each step of thelesson and how they interpreted the activity.” Her comments during a reflection period held onthe last evening in the Dominican demonstrated that she appreciated a crucial concept in Page 23.816.8international aid: we must NOT approach these activities as “Americans coming to the rescue.”“One suggestion is next time instead of us doing all the teaching I think the teachers at theworkshop should have a lesson plan that we as a group can take back and use in the classroom.”This statement showed an
science and engineering vocabulary as a way to reflect on their engineering experience and process their results. Each unit Teacher Guide provides the relevant science and engineering background information for the teacher as well as detailed lesson plans that emphasize student-centered, inquiry-based learning. Catching the Wind is an engineering unit where students use their knowledge of wind energy, creativity, and the Engineering Design Process to design blades for a windmill that will harness the wind’s energy to do work. As with all EiE units, Catching the Wind is divided into four lessons: o Lesson 1 is a storybook that features children from a variety of cultures and backgrounds and introduces
: Comparison of regional electricity emission factors for CO2New York State has abundant water resources and has harnessed the power of several majorrivers (Niagara, St. Lawrence) and many smaller rivers to produce hydroelectric power. Thereare also several nuclear power plants that operate with nearly negligible greenhouse gasemissions. NYS clearly relies less on fossil fuel, especially coal, than the Nation (on average)and far less than Denver (Figure 2). Nuclear (~28%) and hydroelectric power (25%) are muchmore important than coal in NYS. Page 23.928.6These differences in the electricity generation mix are reflected in variable GHG emissions(Figure
) and do not necessarily reflect theviews of the National Science Foundation. Page 23.1334.6References1. Clark, C. 1999. The autodriven interview: A photographic viewfinder into children’s experience. Visual Sociology 14:39-50.2. Smith, A. B., Taylor, N. J., & Gollop, M. M., 2000. Children's voices: Research, policy and practice. Pearson Education, New Zealand.3. Tizard, B & Hughes, M. 1984. Young children learning, talking and thinking at home and at school. Fontana Press, London.4. Epstein, I., Stevens, B., McKeever, P., Baruchel, S., & H. Jones 2008. Using puppetry to elicit children’s talk for research
results of the second survey constitute thebulk of this study, and are discussed below.Second Survey ParticipantsFifty five survey responses were complete enough to be used. The distribution of participants byyear of participation, gender, and major field is shown in Table 2. These reflect the changingnature of the participant pool. Science Fellows began participating in 2005 and the largestcohorts occurred in years 2005-2010. We compared the demographics of all original GK-12Fellows to those who participated in the second survey, and found that the percentages of thesurvey participants were approximately the same (see Table 3). Therefore, the survey sample isconsidered to be representative of participants in our GK-12 program. Table 2
-educated women have increased their share ofthe overall workforce”1. The gender gap in STEM employment is not an anomaly; it reflects thedisparity in the relative numbers of men and women pursuing STEM education, of which the K-12 years, particularly high school, are this paper’s focus.Female high-school students are more likely to aspire to attend college than are their malecounterparts, and young women enroll in college, persist, and graduate from it at higher rates aswell2. So why does this STEM-specific gap exist? This paper employs the tools of “genderanalysis” to address this question.Gender analysis provides a framework for thorough analysis of the differences between women’sand men’s “gender roles, activities, needs, and opportunities in a
. In the K-12 setting, engineering can help students learn to use informed judgment to make decisions, which can lead to informed citizenry. Students must be empowered to believe they can seek out and troubleshoot solutions to problems and develop new knowledge on their own. Engineering requires students to be independent, reflective, and metacognitive thinkers who understand that prior experience and learning Engineering from failure can ultimately lead to better solutions. Students must also learn to manageThinking (EThink) uncertainty, risk, safety factors, and product reliability. There are additional ways of
. Page 23.59.8AcknowledgementsThis material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation underGrant No. (DUE-1038154). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendationsexpressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe National Science Foundation. Portions of the work were also supported by the Golden LEAFFoundation.References1. National Academy of Engineering. The Grand Challenges for Engineering. 2012. [cited 2012 December 5]; Available from: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/.2. National Academy of Sciences. Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, 2007, Washington, DC: National Academy
networking and new media in support of innovative STEM K-12 education. Any Page 23.1337.13opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those ofthe author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.References:1. Perez, S., & Dorman, S. M. (2001). “Enhancing Youth Achievement through Telementoring,” Journal of School Health, 71(3), pp. 122-123.2. Cravens, J. (2003). “Online Mentoring: Programs and Suggested Practices as of February 2001,” Journal of Technology in Human Services, 21(1/2), pp. 85-109.3. O’Neill, D. K., & Harris, J. B., (Winter 2004-2005) “Bridging the
selected problem and were asked to decide which problem they wanted to solveusing engineering. The next two days were dedicated to making a stop-motion action movieusing SAM software [23] to explain their problem and proposed their solution to the class. Weeksseven and eight were spent designing, building, and testing. The materials students used to buildtheir prototypes consisted of whatever was available in the classroom and supplies obtained byrequest from the STOMP fellows. The last day of the unit was dedicated to reflection about theprocess.Data CollectionThe primary method of data collection was video of in-class student group work and largerclassroom discussions. Pictures of student artifacts were also collected to document the stages
their favorite aspect of thescience course. The classroom teacher believed that concepts learned in soil mechanics weremore memorable to the students than those encountered in a traditional class. Finally, we believethat the opportunity for elementary school students to interact closely with goal-oriented rolemodels, who are studying engineering, will help them to develop academic goals for themselves.5. Reflections, Sustainability, and Conclusions The observations on student engagement from the Fellow and classroom teacher arelargely positive for both science and math lessons. The students were reported to be eager toparticipate in the lesson and actively encourage other classmates to join. They attentively listenedto the lesson
engineering and literacy approach, design challenges are drawn from children’sliterature. Students and teachers read texts closely, analyze the plot for problems faced by thecharacters, design and test solutions to the problems, and then reflect in writing about theproblems and solutions. Although new engineering-and-literacy research studies are uncoveringa great deal about elementary teachers’ and students’ engagement with literature-basedengineering experiences, we have limited understanding of what pre-service teachers can knowand do related to engineering design, and what they need to be effective at bringing engineeringdesign to their future students. In order to design effective elementary teacher preparationapproaches in engineering, we need
opinions,findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authorsand do not necessarily reflect the views of our donors.Bibliography 1. Jeffers, A.T., Safferman, A.G. & Safferman, S.I. (2004). Understanding K-12 engineering outreach programs. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 130(4), 95-108. 2. Fadali, M. S., Robinson, M., and McNichols, K. (2000). Teaching engineering to K – 12 students using role playing games. Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, MO. Washington, D.C.: American Society for Engineering Education. 3. Klein-Gardner, SS. (2012). K-Career Directions for Women. Paper
experiences to solve real-world problems. Preparing K–12 teachers to provideauthentic engineering activities in their classrooms required integrated mathematics and scienceapplications, along with exposure to engineering design.3 Learning engineering related activities Page 23.505.4and collaborating with other STEM teachers allowed teachers to think more like an engineer —analytically, critically, and reflectively.3 Professional development resulted in secondary teachersgaining knowledge and skills to transfer this new learning into the classroom and school setting.Teachers identified effective professional development as including hands-on activities
education research focused on young learners raises questions such as howengineering experiences can be integrated into existing school curricula, and which engineeringframeworks are significant, engaging, and inspiring to students 7,8. There are many differenttheories of how to engage students in what they are learning. One of these is ExperientialLearning Theory (ELT), which was developed by educational theorist David Kolb and hiscolleagues. In ELT, “knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” 9, andultimately provides students with the opportunity to directly involve themselves in a learningexperience, reflect on their experiences using analytic skills, and eventually gain a betterunderstanding of the new knowledge and retain