from economically disadvantaged, rural areas to realize their potentialfor college entry as STEM majors and careers. The camp was based around creating a functionalrollercoaster that would then be simulated on a computer after their design had been completed.The camp also provided a simulated form of “roller coaster design companies.” The impacts ofthe camp were then discussed with the students to find its successfulness. A basic assessment instudent math and science capabilities was conducted to establish student abilities. There was astated progress in students from a year to year basis in their proposed self confidence inmathematics and science7 as gauged by student surveys.In another university K-12 STEM outreach effort reviewed, a
of engineering content in the elementary curriculum moves beyond assuring aninformed citizenry; it is also crucial for meeting the tremendous demand for STEM professionals 7, 15.Exposing young learners to the work of engineering professionals and the related occupations isessential for increasing interest and knowledge of STEM careers 10, 13, a process that relies onelementary school teachers 13. We contend that to increase elementary student awareness andunderstanding of engineering careers requires teachers to be well acquainted with engineering content,pedagogy, and workforce needs and developments. The increases in inservice teachers’ engineeringcontent, pedagogy, and workforce needs are likely to be directly influenced by school
ofengineering might be less likely to use design processes or ‘engineering approaches’ to solveproblems, and we wanted to study how students with (at least some) background in engineeringenacted the design process in an ill-structured problem space.In order to find the seven research participants, we contacted all students who had attendedEngineering State and who lived within 60 miles of the university. Eleven of approximately 30students responded to our invitation to participate in the study. We conducted individualinterviews with each of the 11 students, asking them about their interests, their anticipated lifeand career trajectories, and the kinds of activities they liked to do with their families and friends.Questions about these and other topics
. Page 12.873.3Nanotechnology is an ideal vehicle for communicating concepts of engineering as well ashighlighting interdisciplinary work between engineers, scientists, and technologists.Since the inception of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2001, federal funding fornanotechnology research and development has increased substantially from $464 million to anestimated $1,081 million in 2005.Error! Bookmark not defined. The National ScienceFoundation has estimated that two million workers will be needed to support nanotechnologyindustries worldwide within 15 years.12 Thus, an obvious need exists for prepared engineers,scientists, and technologists. As many students opt out of science-related careers before theyenter college,13
recognizing that other areas of the world wereimplementing novel technology curricula. These cutting edge developmental changesencouraged them to redesign their course materials. The support from their school system alsoinfluenced their ability to incorporate a revised curriculum. The researchers found that the morepositive the support was from the schools, the more successful teachers were in theirimplementation. Specifically, a group of teachers in this study found it difficult to make changesto their curriculum at other schools due to a lack of support. Internal factors also influenced theteachers’ implementation ability. This was observed in the form of personal renewal orreflection brought on by career dissatisfaction. As teachers were not
on empirical evidence to gain an understanding of how and whythe designed learning works. Thus, our ultimate goal is to utilize the DBR process to developtheories that can be translated into classroom practices to enhance students’ understanding ofscience, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects while simultaneously inspiringthem to pursue STEM careers. We employ DBR constructs, in the context of a robotics-basedinstructional framework, to support both student and teacher learning in several ways. The use ofrobotics serves to help stimulate an interest in STEM learning for students. In addition, roboticscan help break the silos of the underlying disciplines of STEM to help realize the vision ofintegrating these disciplines. Such
engineering,complicating any analysis of diversification efforts. In the case of economic competitiveness, thegoal is simply production of the maximum number of STEM graduates. The strategy is puttingmore bodies into the beginning of the STEM education pipeline so more come out the other end.In the case of educational pluralism, the goal is more about economic (and career) opportunity“for all,” and inclusiveness and diversity as desirable social and educational foundations in theirown right. These two diversification logics often fold together in practice—and are oftenconflated by STEM education reform advocates—confusing the conceptual foundations formany STEM inclusiveness initiatives. Therefore, while policy support for broad-based STEMrecruitment
Unlock Potential) and Earsketch: An Authentic, Studio-Based STEAM Approach to High School Computing Education. She is also a coordinator for GoSTEM- a collaboration between Georgia Tech and Gwinnett County Public Schools. She graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in History, Technology and Society with a minor in International Affairs. During her undergraduate career, she interned with CEISMC’s summer programs division for three years before moving into her current position. She is currently working to- ward her Master in City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech with a focus on environmental and health planning. She coordinates events, purchasing, and payments for her four
content, and real-world applications to societally-relevantproblems that they previously did not recognize. This transformation carried into theirclassrooms through design and problem-based learning units, and through increased advocacyfor sustainable energy solutions and STEM educational and career paths.Relevance and Integration in Secondary Mathematics and Science InstructionMathematics educators recognize the need to develop a more relevant curriculum for studentsand are exploring new approaches that connect mathematical concepts with real life. Scienceeducators are also increasingly situating science in societally-relevant contexts where scientificknowledge from different areas can be integrated to solve meaningful problems. There
consider future careers as engineers.Making Mistakes It is O.K. to fail at an engineering task because students can learn from theiris O.K. mistakes.Teacher Increase of teachers’ interest and confidence in learning and teachingMotivation engineering.Anyone can do Anyone can do and all ages can learn engineering.EngineeringEngineering is Fun Engineering is fun for teachers and will be fun for their studentsTeacher Collaboration among teachers from the same grade or different grade levelsTeamwork to incorporate engineering into their classrooms. Page 23.838.9 70.0
thisexercise to careers in chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering. Through these activities,the participating students learned about energy and about the work of engineers. They furtherlearned that engineers and engineering impact their everyday lives, and, more importantly, thatthey can think and act like engineers.Lesson Impact: The initial impact of this unit was on 180 students in the participatingclassrooms. However, the students shared their enthusiasm for the unit with their friends, whoshared the information with their mathematics teachers. Christie has now been invited to assistthe two remaining sixth grade mathematics teachers in teaching the same unit. The total impact isapproximately 350 students. Assessment instruments were
address calls for greater workplace and college readiness as well as increase thenumber of students who consider a career in a STEM-related field.Despite the rise in interest in providing students with learning experiences that foster connection-making across the STEM disciplines, there is little research on how best to do so or on whatfactors make integration more likely to increase student learning, interest, retention,achievement, or other valued outcomes. Indeed, there is considerable confusion about just whatintegrated STEM education is and how, if at all, it is different from STEM education that is notintegrated.This paper summarizes the findings and presents the recommendations from a recentlycompleted study of integrated K-12 STEM
science tests6.Other programs have adopted similar approaches of creating kinesthetic learning programswithin the context of preexisting curricula. The Secondary Schools and Queensland Universityof Technology Engineering Activity Kits (SQUEAK) program was implemented in Australia toattract students of secondary schools to engineering careers. Like Project Lead the Way, theSQUEAK program designed hands-on projects to match to students’ coursework7. The VirginiaMiddle Schools Engineering Education Initiative (VMSEEI) created engineering testing kits(ETKs) to facilitate engineering instruction within science and mathematics courses and has built Page
. Over the course of thesemester, Fellows took on more active roles, slipping back into the Observer role during timeswhen teachers lectured, gave students book work to complete, or—in one case—modeled lessondelivery for her Fellow and later in the day allowed him to lead the lesson. Mentor. Fellows in a Mentor role are actively engaged with students and serve as a rolemodel for them. In the Mentor role, Fellows serve several purposes, including (1) demonstratingthat academic achievement is not bounded by geography or gender, (2) offering career modelingby explaining or demonstrating what it is that engineers do, and/or (3) engaging with studentswho may get little personal attention during a typical class period.We saw several examples of
naturally, this activity shows how engineering flows from the central premise that everyone, everywhere, engineers already. Some post-course comments included: o “I see engineering and opportunities for teaching/talking about it all around us. I can apply the terms and explain it in ‘teachable moments.’” o “[I have a] new passion for what engineering is. It has terrified me since I was in high school and I thought engineering was an unattainable career. Now knowing what engineering is, I may have pursued it – I love problem solving and finding the most efficient way to do something. If I had known that maybe I would have pursued it.” o “I went from
The Evergreen State University, a Secondary Teaching Certifi- cate from University of Puget Sound, an M. Ed. in Instructional Technology Leadership from Western Washington University and a Ph.D. (research-based, not theoretical) in Educational Psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.Patricia Pyke, Boise State University Patricia A. Pyke is the Director of the STEM Station at Boise State University. The STEM Station in a university-level initiative to build a STEM community where students and faculty are connected to the resources and support they need to achieve their individual goals in education, career, teaching and research. Her role as director for the STEM Station builds on previous work
; Leary7 found that girls liked learning science in a social context where they couldinteract with others and take part in learning experiences that did not isolate them. They alsofound that girls selected science careers because they had a strong desire to help. The AmericanAssociation of University Women Educational Foundation-AAUW8 noted that “Girls and othernontraditional users of computer science – who are not enamored of technology for technology’ssake – may be far more interested in using the technology if they encounter it in the context of adiscipline that interests them” (p. v). In a 20049 report that surveyed Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs which focused on gender equity in thesciences, the AAUW found
-12 Science Coordinator for an inner ring public school district near St. Louis, Mo. A satellite engineer for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) for 10 years prior to her career in STEM education, McMahon was the Director and a Co-principal In- vestigator for one of the 88 National Science Foundation (NSF) Local Systemic Change Initiative grants awarded nationwide for science and math education reform. For 15 years, she taught physics and as- tronomy in Washington University’s graduate course series for in-service K-8 teachers. McMahon was the Founding Director of MySci, an innovative and award-winning mobile science outreach program for K-2 students. In that role, she led a collaborative partnership of scientists and science
AC 2009-717: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS OFTECHNOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER PARTICIPATING IN AN INFORMALENGINEERING CLUBPamela Lottero-Perdue, Towson State University Dr. Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences at Towson University. She began her career as process engineer, taught high school physics and pre-engineering, wrote curriculum and was a master teacher for Project Lead the Way, and led two Project FIRST robotics teams. As a science teacher educator, she has added engineering content and pedagogy to her science methods courses for prospective elementary teachers. She teaches engineering to
. Iskander P.E., Polytechnic Institute of New York University c American Society for Engineering Education, 2013 Paper ID #6144Magued Iskander is a Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering at NYU-Poly. Dr. Iskander is a recipientof NSF CAREER award, Chi Epsilon (Civil Engineering Honor Society) Metropolitan District James M.Robbins Excellence in Teaching Award, Polytechnic’s Distinguished Teacher Award, and NYU-Poly’sJacobs Excellence in Education Award (twice). Dr. Iskander’s research interests include Geotechnicalmodeling with transparent soils, foundation engineering, and urban geotechnology. He makes extensiveuse of sensors
AC 2012-3556: HANDHELD DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERAS AS A MEANSTO SUPPORT ENGINEERING INSTRUCTIONPamela S. Lottero-Perdue Ph.D., Towson University Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue is an Assistant Professor of science education in the Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences at Towson University. She began her career as process engineer, taught high school physics and pre-engineering, and has been involved in both Project Lead the Way and Project FIRST robotics. She was a Hub Site Partner for Engineering is Elementary (EiE) through their National Dissemination through Regional Partners program. As a pre-service teacher educator, she has added engineering to her elementary and early childhood science methods courses. She
AC 2011-628: CLASSROOM TEACHER - ENRICHMENT TEACHER PAIRS:CO-TEACHING AS A MEANS TO IMPLEMENT ELEMENTARY ENGI-NEERING EDUCATIONPamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Towson University Dr. Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences at Towson University. She began her career as process engineer, taught high school physics and pre-engineering, and has been involved in both Project Lead the Way and Project FIRST robotics. She was a Hub Site Partner for Engineering is Elementary (EiE) through their National Dissemination through Regional Partners program. As a pre-service teacher educator, she has added engineering to her elementary and early
careers in STEM related subject Page 15.562.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Title: Exploring a Valid and Reliable Assessment of Engineering and Technology Education Learning in the Classroom.AbstractIt is common knowledge that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) created a system of accountability thatestablished a baseline for determining school success. To assess student performance, NCBL uses theresults of standardized assessments in traditional disciplines.Since engineering and technology education is not one of the traditional disciplines, only 12 states haveengineering and technology education
the E4 Project, which examines the impact of two engineeringcurricula on students’ learning about engineering and science, as well as their interests in andattitudes towards careers in science and engineering. One of the two curricula is EiE, and is thefocus of the present study; the present study does not include data from the other curriculum. TheE4 Project is currently in its second of two data collection years, with data pertinent to thepresent study collected during and after the completion of the first year (2013 - 2014). E4 Project recruitment began by disseminating project flyers through state, district, andschool level channels within the Massachusetts, Maryland and North Carolina regions. Flyersexplained the basic E4 Project
hypotheses represent the very beginnings of a multi-year study in whichstudents’ and teachers’ responses to and reflections on design failures in the classroom areinvestigated as part of the aforementioned E4 Project.Study Context & Participants The E4 Project examines the impact of two engineering curricula on children’sengineering learning, science learning, interest in and attitudes towards careers in science and Page 24.980.10engineering. Also investigated within this larger study are teachers’ conceptions aboutengineering and science instruction, and their fidelity of implementation of assigned curricula. This larger study is in