environmentthey were working in. The majority of negative feedback received is related to this theme. Evenwhen students were asked to reflect specifically on the teacher, or the lesson, they often providedcritiques regarding the physical environment. This shows that more care should be taken increating a pleasing environment. Students can be very easily distracted when using computersand the survey shows reducing the environmental distractions should be a higher priority to helpstudents focus on their tasks.There were a wide variety of ethnicities represented in the camp: 17.6% Asian/Pacific Islander;5.9% Hispanic/Latina; 17.6% White/Caucasian; and 41.2% mixed.The percentage of male and female students attending the camp was perfectly split, 41.2
problem. Three additional NGSSperformance expectations are aligned to more than 60 lessons and activities—all within theEngineering Design topic at grades 3-5 and 6-8.It is evident that the lessons and hands-on activities in the TeachEngineering collection,expressly created to teach engineering concepts, provide a wealth of curricular resources toenable students to meet the Engineering Design performance expectations, especially for grades3-8. On the other hand, the collection provides only a handful, on average, of lessons and Page 26.1568.5activities that align to the remaining NGSS performance expectations. Reflecting back that thecollection’s
would be attempting to search the ocean floor simultaneously on the same Page 26.774.8track, and they would not travel at the same speed or even at the same direction. The Boe-Botswere equipped with a secondary, forward-looking SONAR to detect the proximity of other Boe-Bots. The students designed and developed the software for proximity detection and collisionavoidance reaction of the Boe-Bots. Through experimenting with the SONAR sensors, studentswere exposed to the concepts of range measurement, resolution and noise. They learned toimprove the SONAR signals via mechanical adjustments, such as increasing the reflection area,and also some
“little opportunity to discuss and see the relevancy of their work”(p. 573).9 This example correlates with similar observations made by Stevens and colleaguesindicating that underrepresented students lost interest in engineering due to the lack of relevancyand connectedness to their values and cultures.8It is important for Latino students to see how engineering relates to their everyday lives. Valuessuch as “caring” or being a “people person,” 8 which are not reflected in engineering cultures,may be important to many minority students. Integrating information from a wide range ofsources, including affective factors, cultivates the sense of relevance of engineering work ofunderrepresented students.20Research QuestionsTo build the interest of