is also a military veteran serving honorably three years in the United States Naval Reserve and 17 years, Wyoming Army National Guard.William Parker, Laramie County School District 1 William T. Parker currently manages Taylored Consulting Services, and is under contract with Laramie County School District Number 1. He retired in January 2006 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service (NOAA-NWS) after 36 years. His last assignment was in Cheyenne as the Wyoming Area Manager and Meteorologist in Charge starting in 1985. Prior to Cheyenne, he served in many management and program leader positions in the NWS. He had assignments in Lubbock
are required to effectively enable students’ mastery of themore general mathematical ideas.IntroductionMathematics curricula that is “a mile wide and an inch deep”1 is often cited as a reason for poorK-12 mathematics achievement in the United States, since it most likely contributes tosuperficial coverage of ideas, students’ views of mathematics as simply a large collection of roteprocedures2, and acquisition of inert knowledge that is learned without consideration for its useoutside of the classroom3. Engineering design has been proposed as an alternative approach toteaching mathematics (in addition to other disciplines such as science and technology) as it hasthe potential to serve as an integrator4, providing a context in which students
, cognitive development, and independent learning to the attention of theengineering faculty. This dramatically improved the final text.3 CK12 Web InfrastructureA constraint on the textbook writing process was that the text could be used as seed material forCK12. Thus, the text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license [1] thatallows the materials to be adapted and extended. This license will be used for all content includedin the CK12 environment.The CK12 Foundation is developing a web-based infrastructure to implement the Flexbook concept. Page 13.425.3This infrastructure provides the capability to author material
opportunity to employ an efficientproblem-solving strategy (e.g. multiplication) or a less efficient method (e.g. repeated addition)yielding the same answer. Fig. 1 shows a sample question from the assessment pre-test. All testitems are aligned with exams and standards that the students are regularly expected to performand address at their grade level. You are given $20 to buy supplies for your class. A set of supplies costs $2.15. How many students can you purchase supplies for? How much change would you receive?Fig. 1. Question from the pre-test The tests were analyzed for problem solving strategies, as described in Table I, to emphasizethe use of an appropriate approach more the arrival at a correct answer. To score
engineering standards.1. Background and game descriptionAn original videogame has been created, inspired by the popular “platformer” (Mario Bros.) and“beat-em-up” (Streets of Rage) game genres, designed to teach children ages 10-14 aboutprincipals of nanoscale science and engineering. The Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing(CHN) began production on Geckoman in the summer of 2006, first creating a trailer and videowalkthrough demonstration of gameplay prior to an NSF site visit. The enthusiastic reaction tothe videos convinced CHN to use outreach funds to create a game that would makenanotechnology not only accessible for kids, but also engaging and fun.In creating the game, the developers experimented with a variety of concepts, drawinginspiration
students in science and mathematics. The NSF GK-12 program offers a uniqueopportunity to address this need.National Science Foundation (NSF) has established a GK-12 program that provides fellowshipsand education pedagogy to graduate students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, andMathematics) fields. The fellows serve as a resource to teachers, and help to increase students’interest in STEM. The plan is for the partnership between the fellow and teacher remains activefor 1 to 2 year/s. NSF has granted funds to SUNRISE project at GMU to initiate partnershipswith unsatisfactory-performing schools in 3 school divisions in the Washington Metropolitanarea. Eight schools are participating in the SUNRISE project; seven elementary schools and
professions found in these areas so they mayconsider them as future career choices3. For either of these goals to be attained, the proposedexhibit must accomplish three tasks: (1) attract visitors, (2) motivate them to become engagedwith the exhibit, and (3) facilitate the acquisition of the knowledge, understanding, and attitudesthe exhibit is designed to convey.Typical exhibits in an hands-on museum require a great deal of development effort. On averageit takes 2 to 3 years, a solid budget (anywhere from $100,000 to a few million in extreme cases,depending on complexity), and a diverse team working full time to create an individualinteractive exhibit. Similar effort was invested in the exhibit described here, except that the teamconsisted mostly of
Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. He earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from the University of South Florida. His experiences include over 30 years teaching in Kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms and 1 ½ years as a resource teacher. Chuck has curriculum writing experience and has presented at various state and national venues.Debbie O'Hare, Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary School DEBORAH O'HARE is a 4th and 5th grade teacher at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from Florida State University and has National Board Certification. In 2006, she
common response was the series Boston Public with a fewother series cited at a lower frequency, typically involving series in re-run such as Fameor Welcome Back, Kotter. Only about 12% of respondents could correctly identify anengineer character/series, with the dominant citation being the character Scotty in StarTrek. About 15% of the respondents incorrectly cited a forensics type series as anexample of an engineer character/series.Figure 1 presents the results of the respondent evaluations of the scale: Dull/boring toExciting. Respondents generally had an image of doctors as being in an excitingprofession, whereas the other three were collectively seen as less exciting. The “doctor”responses were significantly different from the other three
ranging from“Finding Nano” to robotics to ecology.The development of an extensive partnership beyond Clarkson’s campus has been a criticallyimportant aspect of the success and growth of our outreach programs. Partners include thecounty-wide Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and other nearby Universitiesthat provide synergistic expertise, including educational assessment. The partnership helps toprovide an umbrella organization and common themes across all individual programs, whichhelp to main continuity for all stakeholders as the specific funding sources come and go. Thecommon elements that have been consistent across all individual programs and that have beenshown to be critical to our success include: (1) hands-on, inquiry and
afoundational understanding of the state of these initiatives that in turn would serve as the basis offurther inquiry and implementation.We are using as guidelines of this work, the assessment definition and the assessment methodsprovided by Olds et al.9 Assessment is defined there as “the act of collecting data or evidencethat can be used to answer classroom, curricular or research questions” (p. 13). In this sense, weare analyzing the kind of questions, implicit or explicit, that each assessment within published P-12 engineering education studies are trying to answer. Olds et. al divide assessmentmethodologies into two primary types: “(1) studies that describe the current state of aphenomenon (descriptive studies) and (2) studies that examine how a
decades ofdiversification of labor and increasing access to global transportation, product parts are nowmade all over the world and assembled in factories, which are equally dispersed. Theseproducts/parts are ‘invisible’ and the people who currently manufacture them are ‘invisible’.The premise of this project is students are ‘clueless’ about manufacturing and manufacturingcareers: what it involves, how parts are manufactured, what is manufactured in their ownbackyards, and the skills required for manufacturing them.A Spring 2007 NSF-ATE survey asked middle school students involved in the project to nametheir Top Three Career Choices. The project evaluators categorized the choices using the 16federal career clusters6. Table 1 Students’ Choices
13.963.3teachers will have an impact on student learning of science topics and processes, technology, andengineering. The program was designed to integrate engineering/technology and science in away that supports the learning in each of these disciplines. Engineering complements theinstruction of science by supplying a context for application outside of the science lesson.Curricula Content and Structure of Teacher Professional DevelopmentEach year of the three-year MSP program focuses on a different science discipline. The firstyear, which ends in June, 2008 focuses on life science, environmental science and technology.Table 1 shows the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards covered in the first year.Subsequent years will focus on earth science and
responsible for its initial development. It also had to containone or more salient pieces that have undergone field testing or external evaluation andsubsequent revision and are no longer being identified as “drafts.”The K-12 engineering education initiatives that so far have met the selection criteria are listed inTable 1. It is possible that additional materials will be added to the analysis or that somecurrently listed will not receive a full review. At the time this paper was prepared, reviews foronly about a third of the materials had been completed; another third were in some intermediate Page 13.202.4stage of review. Thus, the observations
Page 13.95.2students. The sample was not diverse ethnically; only one student was not white. Nine of thetwelve participants were women. One student was deaf, and had a translator in the classroom.The sample participated in a mini-course simply titled “Engineering”. The course goals for thefirst iteration of the Upward Bound program were to 1) generate interest in engineering as acareer path, 2) address any misconceptions of engineering and engineering careers held bystudents, and 3) give students an opportunity to apply the math and science knowledge gained inother Upward Bound courses. These objectives are similar to other pre-college programsreported in the literature3-8. A project based learning approach 9-12 was used to give studentshands
Academy of Engineering(NAE) in 2002 of 177 organizations involved in PUE activities revealed that they spendan estimated $400 million annually.1 However, the actual national investment can beassumed to be much higher, because the survey is believed to have reached only afraction of the institutions that have PUE initiatives.Despite these efforts, the impact of engineering on our daily lives, the nature of whatengineers do, and the opportunities available through an engineering education are stilllargely unknown to most Americans. Educational researchers have found that K–12teachers and students generally have a poor understanding of what engineers do.2 3 4Polling data comparing scientists and engineers show that the public sees engineers asbeing
camps.References:1. C. Jonas, G.P. Sparks, “Interactive Engagement as a Tool for Increasing StudentAchievement,” 2005, http://mercystreetdallas.org/v1/IE%20Study.pdf2. Quizdom Education: Interactive Learning System http://www.qwizdom.com3. Materials World Modules, http://www.materialsworldmodules.org Page 13.1232.7
Carolina at Charlotte(UNC Charlotte), the National Science Foundation, and local partners. NCJETS involves over 30middle and high schools from seven counties. The purpose of the program is to engage studentsin educational, interesting, and challenging activities that: (1) introduce them to variousdisciplines and career opportunities afforded by the engineering profession; (2) inform themabout two- and four-year college admission requirements and actions they need to ensure theireligibility for admission; and (3) establish a sense of community with Lee College students andfaculty prior to their graduation from high school. Week-long resident summer camps areprovided for middle and high school students, where the high school students receive a
and one Hispanic female. The demographic of theprofessional development providers included seven white males, one African Americanmale, one Asian male and one African American female.The professional development workshop was guided by three goals. 1) Increase high schoolSTEM teachers’ content knowledge regarding constraints, optimization and predictiveanalysis in an engineering design context; 2) Increase high school STEM teachers’ ability todevelop, use and assess curriculum materials that addressed engineering design; and 3)Involve all participants in reflection on their experiences in order to establish thecharacteristics of an effective PD program for high school teachers infusing engineeringdesign concepts into STEM classrooms
Kolbmodel describes an entire cycle of the learning experience20. Bloom’s Taxonomy describes sixlevels in which learning can occur. The levels in the taxonomy range from basic memorizationof information to evaluation and critiquing of a topic21. These learning models have beenembodied in the DTEACh model (hands-on technology exploration, interactive discussions,exploratory labs, open-ended design problems, and project reporting process.) The DTEAChtraining is structured according to this model so that the participants experience this method ofteaching in the training workshops. The steps in the model and examples of implementation inthe DTEACh training are described below: 1. Hands-on Technology Exploration: Introducing a topic to students
.Overview of SDSM&T RET ProgramThe main objective of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) ResearchExperience for Teachers (RET) Site: “Inspiring Educators in Rural America through Research”is to provide an authentic research experience to practicing middle and high school science, math,and technology teachers. As an outcome of the research experience, the teachers take back totheir classroom newly acquired experiences, knowledge, and demonstrations which they willreadily share with their students. The objectives of the SDSM&T RET Site are: 1. to provide ten (10) sixth through twelfth grade teachers (RET Research Assistants) the opportunity to work side-by-side with undergraduate students, graduate students
or behaviors that will be provided by students?• Does each of the objectives include qualifying statements or phrases that describe proficient or “good enough” performance for each product or behavior expected of students?• Are the lesson objectives sufficient to meet all critical learning expectations included in the content descriptions of the selected standard or indicator? Was anything left out?As a result, a rubric with seven elements has been developed. Each is evaluated on a three pointscale where in general 0 indicates poor, vague, or non-existent, 1 indicates somewhat lacking butacceptable and 2 indicates clear, concise, objective, measurable or complete (see Appendix).For example, the first element is whether
show MythBusters to get the kids excited about theengineering principles and to demonstrate that sometimes you have to “do” in order to find outhow something works or does not work.ProgramThe week long sessions are set up for 15 hours a week. Either from 9:00 am till 12:00 pm in themornings or from 1:00 pm till 4:00 pm in the afternoon. Typically the kids are given a 15 – 20minute break during the middle of the session.Each 3 hour time period includes a discussion on a particular engineering field with follow-uphands-on activities, and experiments. An episode of MythBusters might be shown if it relates tothe topic for that session. Most of the attendees are already huge fans of the show or become fanswhen they leave the class.During the first
addition the poor performance of American students, including our best and brightest, on international comparative assessments is alarming. But retention of knowledge is not the measure of most concern. Rather, it is the lackluster performance of American 15 year olds on the two most recent Programme for 1 International Student Assessment (PISA) assessments , which measures how well students can apply the knowledge they have gained, that is the strongest indicator of the need for major changes in the way K-12 students are taught.The long time and accepted methods of pedagogy practiced in today’s classrooms weredeveloped for an industrial revolution era society. Relying on the efficacy of
Page 13.1083.3researcher from a major engineering school gave an hour lecture/seminar about engineering tothe target population at the same school long before the study began. As seen in Table 1, total of370 students enrolled in 6th grade in these schools. Participants were 20 Caucasian 6th-gradestudents that were 11-12 years old. An equal number of male and female students waspurposefully selected among the volunteers in the study. In phenomenographic studies, a samplesize of 15-20 with maximum variation is traditionally believed adequate to investigate thephenomenon. In this study, variation was sought only for gender. Ethnicity and economic statuswas not part of our selection process because of ethnic homogeneity among the volunteers
on 2004/2005 statistics 1, 95.4 % of theUniversity’s student population was “White/Non-Hispanic”. In an effort to increase ourtotal enrollments and also address our lack of racial diversity, we found a very“reachable” population in the local public schools. The public school student populationin the region is in fact significantly more diverse 2 with a “White/Non-Hispanic”population of 80.81%. In both instances the balance of the populations were comprisedof Blacks, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic.On average, two high school classes per month have traveled to campus to participate inlaboratory based sessions. As a direct result of these sessions, four new majors havejoined our program and several others have requested
Page 13.1318.1 colleges, state/federal agencies, and secondary schools. These partnerships provide resources for many departmental programs. She has brought over $1 million to the University as the principal investigator on multiple proposals and partnership with grant, foundation, and corporate external funding opportunities for pre-college academic programs and teacher programs from Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Programs Consortium, DENSO International, Dow Chemical, Ford© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Pre-College Engineering Programs Consortium, DENSO International, Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Company Foundation, Kimberly-Clark Corporation
inquantitative professions. “To take full advantage of the benefits and to recognize, address, oreven avoid the pitfalls of technology, Americans must become better stewards of technologicalchange” (Pearson, 20043).The Building Math project sought to address the demonstrated needs described above bydeveloping activities that integrate algebra and engineering. This was not an easy endeavor, asexisting activities tended to emphasize one subject over the other, or require a team of teachers(i.e., technology, science, and math) to coordinate over a fairly lengthy period of time. Afterseveral iterations of implementing activities in pilot classrooms, activities that successfullyintegrated algebra and engineering had these qualities: (1) the activities
, andhuman services. Examples of community partners in these areas include: • Education - K-12 schools, museums, adult learning programs, after-school programs • Access and abilities - adaptive services, clinics for children with disabilities, programs for adults with disabilities, assistive technology • Human services - Homelessness prevention, Habitat for Humanity, family and children agencies, neighborhood revitalization, local government • Environment - environmental organizations, neighborhood associations, parks & recreationExample ProjectsHigh School projects currently underway include:1. Wastewater diversion/”green” field maintenance project Caseville High School, Huron Intermediate Schools in