Paper ID #13735Urban elementary school students’ reflective decision-making during formalengineering learning experiences (Fundamental)Dr. Kristen Bethke Wendell, University of Massachusetts BostonDr. Christopher George Wright, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dr. Wright is an Assistant Professor of STEM Education in the Department of Theory & Practice in Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee.Dr. Patricia C Paugh, University of Massachusetts Boston Page 26.1636.1 c American Society for
children’s motivation, interest, and awareness inSTEM.IntroductionWith the need to prepare students for the 21st century workforce a university with a very diversestudent population strives to address one of the critically important issues facing society:increasing the number of underrepresented students pursuing and completing degrees in science,technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Evidence within the Department ofLabor reflects that fifteen of the twenty fastest growing jobs projected for 2014 requiresignificant preparation in mathematics and science with the numbers of STEM professionsexpected to grow at a faster rate than those non-STEM professions[1]. Although careers in STEMprovide paths out of poverty, make significant
processes when peers were willing and able to providesupport. Kolodner and colleagues4, 5 developed ritualized activity structures that facilitate peerinteraction. The purpose of the present mixed-methods study was to investigate how middle-school students’ respond to communication challenges during a set of design-reflect-designprocesses associated with collaborative engineering design. Two questions guided analysis: RQ1: What do learners’ written reflections reveal about their perceptions of their group’s communication patterns, and how do these perceptions shift across the two design challenges? RQ2: What are learners’ perceptions of the quality of their individual-level interactions, and how do these perceptions
Page 26.660.2unemployment rates, STEM jobs “are going unfilled simply for lack of people with the right skillsets.”2, further emphasizing the need to train a population of qualified STEM graduates.However, current trends in engineering enrollment reflect a decrease from 6.3 to 5.4 percent ofthe total degrees conferred.3 The 2012 President’s Council of Advisors on Science andTechnology (PCAST) report, “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional CollegeGraduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,” indicates thatthe United States needs to prepare one million additional STEM professionals in the next decadeto maintain its dominance in science and technology.4 One important strategy for increasing thequalified
Page 26.844.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 High School Engineering Class: From Wood Shop to Advanced Manufacturing (Evaluation)AbstractThe maker movements, a general term for the rise of inventing, designing, and tinkering, and theaddition of engineering standards to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) havespawned a major evolution in technology classes throughout the country. At Georgia Institute ofTechnology, a new curriculum attempts to bring the maker movement to high school audiencesthrough both curricular and extra-curricular channels. The curriculum is structured aroundengineering standards and learning goals that reflect design and advanced
, and Shake Table Survival. Engineering Design Process This process is used to guide students through the STEM EDA curriculum Build a prototype for the design chosen in Step 4 while encouraging teamwork, critical thinking, and creativity. and utilize the iterative nature of design. Test the prototype on the shake table and evaluate its performance. Reflect on the performance of the prototype and suggest improvements and redesigns of the
, larger-scale, quantitative scientific studies. Brown4points out that criteria against which to measure success of interventions or guide iterations ineducational DBR should consist of development of traits which the school system is chargedwith teaching, e.g., problem solving, critical thinking, and reflective learning.In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the flexibility and hands-on nature of a roboticsplatform will support different audio, visual, verbal (read/write), and kinesthetic learningstyles,5,6 offering teachers more versatility within lesson plans while effectively teaching STEMconcepts to students. Despite a lack of agreement7 within the education research communityregarding categories or, in some cases, the existence of
frustrating.”Basic STEPS AssessmentDraw an EngineerAssessment of the 2014 Basic STEPS Camp included participant pre and post surveys,participant engineering notebooks, and analysis of daily reflections. Participant engagementwith the e-textiles showed the most electrifying measurements. Girls were asked before andafter their STEPS experience to complete an activity called “Draw an Engineer.”4 In this activitythe girls first described what engineering is and then what engineers do. They were then asked todraw an engineer. The drawing in particular is meant to capture stereotypes that students mayhave towards engineering4. Girls at STEPS were given this activity before and after camp toevaluate how their perception of what engineers do changed. Due to
legislated equality for women in work,education and law. The activism of the second wave of feminism produced the majority ofcurriculum feminization and raised concerns about the effect of feminized curriculum on boys.The third wave, also called post-feminism, is a time of confusion for most girls and women whobelieve they live in a society of equality but experience sexism in many obvious and hiddenways. British Columbian curriculum documents no longer mention feminist requirements butfocus on aboriginal and racial diversity, reflecting the post-feminist culture that women are equaland sexism no longer needs mentioning. The post-feminist constructs of Girl Power andSuccessful Girls9,10 send the message that girls can do and have anything, yet
a means for pre-service elementary teachers tolearn how to make connections between science and engineering concepts. In the present study,the emphasis will be on understanding the connections through the developed and implementedinstructional strategies and teacher reflections on the experiences during the elementary sciencemethods course. The following questions guide this study: How does the collaboration between engineering students and pre-service teachers impact the subject matter knowledge needed to design and implement instruction for science and engineering? What are the affordances and constraints that pre-service teachers’ identify as impacting the process of designing and implementing
motivation and selfdirection so they become lifelong explorers. Because participants' prior knowledge of the problem at hand is often limited, engineers first introduce the core concepts in a 15 minute presentation. After this instruction, families have the freedom to evaluate and shape their learning, pursuing those questions and concepts that are of greatest interest. Additionally, by moving through the stages of inspiration, planning, building, reflecting, and redesigning (i.e. engineering design process (EDP)) with their children, parents and caregivers model important skills including persistence, creativity, and curiosity to find new solutions. Evaluation
American students more strongly than any otherminority group. AfA students were also influenced by social supports. Compared to the othergroups, AfA were less influenced by influence from others but had a higher level of influencefrom pre-college activities. The relatively high influence from interest in STEM as well as pre-college activities is mostlikely explained by the fact that many of the African American students in our sample went toSTEM focused high schools and were recruited specifically from them. Our data reflect thispotential explanation, as AfA were relatively more influenced by recruitment and financialavailability (scholarships) compared to their peers. The finding that exposure to STEM classesmotivated these AfA students to
Page 26.894.8Findings section of this paper show results indicating that YSP students showed highlysignificant gains in all areas examined: 1) Fundamentals of neuroscience, engineering, andneuroethics research, 2) Neural engineering best practices, and 3) Connections to neuralengineering industry and careers.Post-program Reflective SurveysAn end-of-program survey was given to YSP students at the conclusion of each summer programto measure the impact on students’ content knowledge and skill set competency in areas ofneural engineering. A retrospective pre-test design was used on some survey questions todetermine if there were statistically significant differences in knowledge of neural engineeringskill sets.13 Considerable empirical evidence
interaction, we hope to identify recommendations wecan make to other parents on how to foster engineering interest in their children, as wellas contribute ideas for activities for K-5 classrooms to reach a wider range of children.AcknowledgementThis material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation underGrant No (HRD-1136253). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendationsexpressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect theviews of the National Science Foundation. We would also like to acknowledge thecontributions of the GRADIENT research team members Scott VanCleave, MaggieSandford and Zdanna Tranby for data collection.References 1. Ceci, S., J., & Williams, W. M. (2010
Page 26.1230.2is a focus on formative assessment, progress monitoring, and student maturity. For example,daily openers and closing reflections are included in our course revision that are not typical in acollege course. Recommendations are provided in the lesson plans to guide high school teacherson how best to coach the student design teams and organize the hands-on materials/exercises.The rationale for these changes is the need for the material to be easily digestible by high schoolstudents and teachers who have not been involved in a hands-on design course previously.The hardware items used in the curriculum did not change between the collegiate and highschool versions. Both curricula use the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit (SIK), the Simon Tilts
consistent with literature on introducing conceptsof race as a social construction to college-level classes13. Therefore, we sought to find a differentway to engage students on issues of race that broadened the conversation to issues ofenvironment, socioeconomic context, and marginalization/privilege for the second year of theexperiment.Using science to achieve health equity. Ethnic minorities are more likely than Whiteindividuals to receive poor health care14, 15. These disparities in key areas of health, whilealarming, reflect the realities of ethnic minorities’ social environments (i.e., racism,discrimination, and race-related stress), and are not simply the consequence of individualbehaviors and choices16. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems
learnedprogramming skills. Kai’s experience with Lego Robotics is an example of this. When askedwhat he learned from participating in an informal learning experience, Kai responded, “Well Idid learn how to program Lego Robots.”Some of the children are learning very hands-on, practical skills as they engage in engineeringthrough informal experiences, while others are wrestling with conceptual ideas. Alexander isactive in 4-H, and he has done many projects in electricity. Marcus has a great interest inphysics, and learns most of his engineering ideas from his participation at local universityoutreach programs and his interaction with tutors and experts. In Table 3, we share two examplesof what students or parents reflect on as their learning, and include an
betterunderstand the challenges facing the creation of inclusive and effective educationalopportunities. In engineering, four interrelated factors have been noted as barriers to thepersistence of academically talented students that face financial limitations, as is the case formany of our multicultural students20, 21, 22: ● Lack of Engagement/Sense of Belonging ● Underdeveloped Professional Work Ethic & Goal Setting Page 26.1751.5 ● Insufficient Opportunities to Gain Practical Competence & Reflect on Learning ● Working for PayTalented young women, as well as multicultural students, too frequently pursue careers in otherfields or
Treatment Can cCan hoose choose to do tomdo any many different differentkinds of kinds of jobs jobs 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Figure 1. Percent of students in 2012-2013 who agreed that each statement reflects what engineers do.As can be seen in Figure 2, these differences based on school were not evident in the 2013-2014cohort. Works Work with with others others to to solve
practice may be a program, a product, or a process”In this research, the product is web-based engineering and technology curriculum. ActionResearch is specific to education and learning using web-based technology and applying it tothe engineering and technology curriculum. Even though Action Research is oftenmentioned as lacking a distinct theoretical base, it is a powerful tool in stimulating socialchange and exploring how to modify a situation or practice. Eileen Ferrance definition ofAction Research is, “It is a reflective process that allows for inquiry and discussion ascomponents of the “research.” Often, action research is a collaborative activity amongcolleagues searching for solutions to everyday, real problems experienced in schools
Paper ID #12276Interest-based engineering challenges phase I: Understanding students’ per-sonal, classroom, engineering, and career interestsCole H Joslyn, Purdue University, West Lafayette Cole Joslyn is a PhD student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include holistic approaches to humanizing engineering education (such as ethics of care, human- istic education, contemplative and reflective practices, and spirituality) and how it can shape engineering as a socially just profession in service to humanity. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a M.Ed. specializing
collected on STEM self-efficacy, Page 26.1040.6expectations of STEM disciplines, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and groupidentification. While the pilot study involved a small population, the results provide importantinformation about the impact of the outreach activity on the participants’ attitudes towardsSTEM disciplines. In addition, they demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed tool for assessingSTEM outreach activities for high school students. Table 2 illustrates the reliability of thesubscale questions by using Cronbach’s alpha. The latter reflects the internal consistency of aninstrument, that
challenge trying to combine all of those three to make one idea.”Implementation “It’s like fun because you get everybody’s ideas on it and when you get it all together, it looks perfect and it works out.”Students might have noted many aspects of collaboration associated with working onengineering design challenges in response to this open-ended question. That their responsesfocused on managing ideas seems to reflect many of these students’ sense that engineeringdesign is largely a process of generating and bringing ideas to fruition and that this process isinherently collaborative. Page 26.1629.4Theme 2. Additional
instructional landscape foster possibilities forconnection and collaboration that the traditional classroom precludes, as a wider network existsbeyond the brick and mortar classroom. The Accelerate curriculum enhances these possibilitiesby relying on a broad-based philosophy of course integration that obfuscates abiding distinctionsbetween “hard” and “soft” skills, blends liberal and technical subjects, and—perhaps, mostimportantly—combines a range of populations, talents, and experiences to produce the nextgeneration of engineers. At the heart of the program lie six conceptual strands, or “grandthemes.” Developed in the fall semester of 2014 by Accelerate faculty and administrators, thesethemes reflect and inform the overall mission of integration
of up to two years.PartnersThe efforts described in this article reflect a collaborative partnership between a large publicschool district, DPS, and a university, CSM. The demographics of the participants are describedin the subsections that follow.Public School DistrictDPS is approximately 58% Latino and 14% African American. Seventy-two percent of studentswithin the district qualify for free or reduced cost lunch. The district serves over 85,000 studentsin grades K-12 with an overall graduation rate of 61.3% and a dropout rate of 5% per academicyear.UniversityCSM is a public university specializing in applied science and engineering. There are over 4200undergraduate students enrolled, 73% of which are male and 13% who are
approach reflects a foundationalmisalignment in educational philosophies resulting in what might provocatively be characterizedas “bait-and-switch.” The bait-and-switch characterization reflects a mismatch between theengagement logics embedded in most K-12 engineering education and the exclusionary logicsunderlying most university engineering education. While we acknowledge from the start thatuniversity engineering programs are increasingly emphasizing student engagement, the rapidexpansion of K-12 engineering programs has outpaced reforms in higher education aroundengagement, thereby magnifying the problems associated with engineering bait-and-switchexplored in this paper.In popular vernacular, bait-and-switch is often associated with fraud or
. • Part 2 focuses on the students’ experience, reflecting on how engineering is included in the Next Generation Science Standards. • Part 3 discusses forms of assessment required when students do open ended creative work, and the new relationship the teacher must have with the students. • Part 4 describes the next step, the many possibilities in the Engineering course, for students who successfully finish Intro to Engineering. • Part 5 describes the next frontier for this program, a preparation for younger students prior to Intro to Engineering.The story this program tells, like engineering itself, is very dynamic, so elements from all fivesections are subject to continuous improvement.Part 1 The design of a
26.814.10imposed on the child gender data. On the other hand, reviews gathered from Amazon.com didnot seem to vary by date, as the site has kept its reviewing system largely the same over time.Future ResearchThis research can be considered a good jumping-off point for more intensive statistical analysison the raw data collected. As a largely exploratory study, its aims were merely to provideevidence of surface-level trends and how these reflect the conclusions of other researchers onthis topic, instead of performing rigorous statistical analyses. However, the data gathered is ripefor analysis, provided the researchers are able to mine independent variable data from thereviews collected; while two dependent variables are available in the child’s gender and
inMassachusetts, Maryland, and North Carolina. Members of the EiE project team conductedprofessional development with the assistance of E4 staff and state coordinators. After beingintroduced to the subject of engineering (with which many had not had significant contact),teachers engaged in hands-on training for their assigned engineering unit as well as a second unitin order to increase exposure to the curriculum. Throughout the workshop, professional Page 26.848.9development staff modeled curriculum-specific pedagogy for teachers by placing them in therole of students while engaging in the activities. Staff also helped participants to reflect asteachers