and challenges they perceive to negotiating this “dual” identity.Analysis of initial survey and focus group data indicates that students in this degree program doidentify as both engineers and teachers. Using a mixed-methods approach informed by currenteducation research—including quantitative and qualitative survey questions and small focusgroup analysis—we explore the ways in which students discovered the e+ teaching program andhow they envision integrating the two disciplines into careers. We are also interested in howengineering students incorporate what they learn in their engineering studies into the lesson plansthey design for secondary classroom students.BackgroundResearch on bringing engineering into the K-12 arena suggests that
College Rebecca Citrin is a presently employed as a Site/Civil Staff Engineer for Langan Engineering and Envi- ronmental Service. Rebecca graduated from Lafayette College in 2014 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering and a minor in Environmental Science. She previously worked with Lafayette College and North Carolina State University faculty members on an NSF funded education project. Rebecca has conducted research on various informal K – 12 engineering education projects and has worked on devel- oping assessment methods for these projects. Rebecca has also organized various student events such as the Lafayette College Engineering Brain Bowl and the Lafayette College STEM Camp, to both promote
Publication Type Journal, Dissertation, or Thesis Year Year of publication (as opposed to the year of data collection) State(s) State(s) where data was collected from Participants Participants involved in the study Research Focus Focus of the research study (e.g., abilities, motivations) Focus (narrowed) A finer categorization than above (e.g., students’ abilities) Research Methods The type of research conducted (e.g., Quantitative, Qualitative, Both) Sample Size Total sample size of PLTW-affiliated participants Internal Comparison Whether the study compared PLTW internally (e.g., by demographics) If so, what? What were the comparative variables used (e.g
even parents, should also be aware that young students areable to engage in engineering practices such as evidence-based reasoning. This study also pointsto an important scaffolding tool to help young students build their EBR skills, using the question“Why?”LimitationsThis study followed three classrooms during a pilot implementation of an integrated STEM andliteracy curriculum for Kindergarten students. Teachers were using the curriculum for the firsttime and the curriculum was not in its final state. Classroom 1 did not have the fullimplementation video recorded so may have had additional instances of EBR in the classroom atother times.AcknowledgementsThe material presented is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
. In future studies, a more qualitative researchapproach will be taken to complement the quantitative data in an effort to identify those criticalprogrammatic elements that impact URM students’ interest and self-efficacy in engineering ininformal learning environments. Moreover, we aim to explore the longitudinal impact of this typeof program on students’ decisions to pursue engineering studies. Moving forward, there are plansto use the knowledge gained from this study to update and package the lesson plans and activitiesdeveloped in the design course for broader implementation in other STEM-related programs.References1. PCAST. 2012. Engage to excel: producing one million additional college graduates with degrees in science, technology
and mathcontent by carefully adapting educational robotics technology. The work reported in this paper isbased on the collaboration of project team (consisting of engineering and education faculty,researchers, and graduate students) with 20 middle school teachers (10 pairs of science and mathteachers at 8 New York City schools) and observations of more than 250 middle school studentsin their robotics-based STEM lessons.To begin, using appropriate questionnaire design techniques, we develop a “trust vocabulary” thatelicits what the participants (i.e., teachers and students) mean by trust in the robots for their lessonsand what factors and features of robotics may affect their trust. Next, we develop a qualitative trustassessment method using a
Education Grassroots Approach Abstract The earthquake engineering community has recognized that in seismically active regions throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands of students and staff unknowingly study and work in structurally vulnerable school and university buildings. The School Earthquake Safety Initiative (SESI), spearheaded by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), is a collaborative network of diverse, expert, and impassioned professionals who are committed to creating and sharing knowledge and tools that enable broadminded, informed decision making around school earthquake safety. The Classroom Education and Outreach
through the CU Teach Engineering program. Additionally, she mentors graduate and undergraduate engineering Fellows who teach in local K-12 classrooms through the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program’s TEAMS initiative, is on the development team for the TeachEngineering digital library, and is faculty advisor for CU-Boulder’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Her primary research interests include the impacts of project-based service-learning on student identity, pathways and retention to and through K-12 and undergraduate engineering, teacher education and curriculum development.Dr. Janet Y. Tsai, University of Colorado, Boulder Janet Y. Tsai is a researcher and instructor in the Engineering Plus program at the
Paper ID #15045Assessing The Effectiveness of an Engineering Summer Day CampMs. Alison Haugh, University of St. Thomas Alison Haugh is in the third year of her studies at the University of St. Thomas, Majoring in Elementary Education and STEM Education,while Minoring in Engineering Education. Her undergraduate Playful Learning Lab research is focused on expanding quality engineering education with an eye to under-served populations, including students with disabilities. Alison is the Lead STEPS (Science, Technology and En- gineering Preview program) curriculum constructor, lead trainer and lead on-site researcher
in a student’s decision as to where to attendand what to study. Many other successful programs focus on younger students to intervene incritical decision making times.For this project we paired schools that have been a part of ongoing K-12 outreach programs withadditional schools that have a larger percentage of underrepresented groups in their generalpopulation. In the initial pilot, participating High Schools sent two teachers and six students tothe STEM-Discovery camp. Teachers were urged to select student teams that balance academicdisciplines with roughly half having interests in science/math and the other half in other fields.Teacher workshops were used to guide teachers through the engineering design process, as wellas the content