Conference Session

First-Year Programs: Assessment

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brittany Ann Kos, University of Colorado, Boulder; Sarah Miller, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

 Real World Playlist:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJlFLEhutszuyN4iC3kR20amzp7fb iXpl  View  1. Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Ethics Case Study (20:29)  2. Piper Alpha Ethics Case Study (15:17)  3. Spiro Agnew: Ethics Case Study (14:48)  4. Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse: Ethics Case Study (14:32)  ■ Meet the Professor who helped uncover the Flint lead water crisis:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/01/26/meet-t he-heroic-professor

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division Technical Session 1

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Lachney, Michigan State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

next person, is louder because they are trying to hear or “oh look it’s over here” and they just stepped on somebody’s robot… [I] just keep reminding them that there’s other things around, other kids’ robots are around…like don’t leave your box of Legos on the desk because it can fall off. Put it on the floor because it can’t fall off the floor.While Bob’s techniques do not make the activity any less project-based (i.e. simulations of real-world problem-solving and collaboration), they are reminders that project-based learning can fallon a continuum of high-structured to low-structured activities. Indeed, the image of project-basedlearning as being motivated by students’ own explorations is also challenged by the builds

Conference Session

Research on Learning, Performance, and Impact

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sylvanus N. Wosu, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

intentionally included selectedcourses and activities to provide a common set of expectations for what 9-12th grade studentsshould learn and connect those expectations with an engineering field of study. Project CAREmathematics and technology learning objectives to reach this milestone are as follows:Math Learning Objectives/Skills set for  Define the six trigonometric functions using the lengths of the sides of a right triangle, and solve problems involving the periodic properties of trigonometric functions of a real variable.  Generate graphs of trigonometric functions and their inverses, and explore transformations of these graphs, including applications to solving real world problems.  Learn and apply fundamental

Conference Session

Best of Computers in Education Division

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Osman Yasar, The College at Brockport - SUNY; Peter Veronesi, The College at Brockport - SUNY; Jose Maliekal, The College at Brockport, SUNY; Leigh J Little, The College at Brockport - SUNY; Sounthone E Vattana, The College at Brockport - SUNY; Ibrahim H. Yeter, Texas Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

; Computational Think- ing/Pedagogy Project; Rocket Project of SystemsGo; World MOON Project; East Lubbock Promise Neighborhood (ELPN) Project; and Robotics. Since 2013 he has served as the president of the Nu Sigma chapter of Kappa Delta Pi: International Honor Society in Education and was the founding president of ASEE Student Chapter at Texas Tech University. He can be reached at ibrahim.yeter@ttu.edu. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Computational Pedagogy: Fostering a New Method of TeachingAbstractTeaching with technology still remains as a challenge. Making judicious choices of when, what and howspecific tools and pedagogies to use in the teaching of a topic can be improved

Conference Session

ENT Division Technical Session: Creativity and Innovation

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Sine Celik, Aalto University; Senni Kirjavainen, Aalto University; Tua A. Björklund, Aalto University Design Factory

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

technological solutions that focus heavily onstudents’ technical skills. However, for innovations that create an impact, it is essential tolink this technical knowledge to societal considerations. This paper describes a problem-centered approach towards introducing mechanical engineering students to sustainable,ethical and collaborative innovation, through an analysis of student work and feedbackgathered from a ten-week long pilot conducted as part of a compulsory, Master’s level,academic year-long Mechanical Engineering course.During the pilot, student groups worked on broadly phrased challenges derived from anongoing EU project on developing societal applications for technology, choosing one ofseven challenges ranging from changing rain patterns in

Conference Session

Online Teaching

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Morrow Nissenson, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Angela C. Shih, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

/retention-and-intention-massive-open-online-courses-depth-0 Page 26.1168.16Appendix A: Course syllabusNote: The syllabus format has been modified for this paper, but the content is unchanged. Introduction to VBA/Excel ProgrammingInstructorPaul Nissenson, Ph.D.Department of Mechanical EngineeringCalifornia State Polytechnic University, PomonaCourse outlineIn this 10-week course, you will develop computer programming skills using Microsoft Exceland the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language. These programming skills can be used totackle a wide range of real-world problems. We will cover one topic per

Conference Session

Works in Progress: Learning and Engagement

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nicholas D. Fila, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Senay Purzer, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

that’s why it’s important… Facing a new challenge every day. That is one of the reasons I want to work on innovative projects.Innovation as Self-Improvement – Jerry, Leon, and MarshallStudents in this category also sought innovation projects as personal challenges. Their focus,however, was on the challenge as an opportunity for learning and development. Morespecifically, these students sought to expand their knowledge and abilities in real-world contexts,thus innovation projects were distinctly external to course projects. Jerry experienced innovationin an extracurricular design competition team. Leon described a variety of experiences onpersonal projects and engineering-related clubs. Marshall discussed an innovation project duringhis

Conference Session

Track : Special Topic - Identity Technical Session 7

Collection

2019 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity

Authors

Michael Lorenzo Greene, Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus; Nadia N. Kellam, Arizona State University; Brooke Charae Coley, Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus

Tagged Topics

Diversity, Special Topic: Identity

it from a CAD [model],putting it into the 3D printing [software and] configuring it so that it can print correctly.” Thesestudents often value the fact that they are able to visually see the different steps of completion ona project, something that is rarely seen in traditional classroom approaches. Makerspaces giveparticipants a sense of ownership over their intellectual property, specifically because they areable to make their ideas into tangibles. This enables students who engage in makerspaces anopportunity to validate their ideas since they are able to physically see them as well as differentproblems that arise in the design process.Real World Applications of Engineering ProcessIn engineering courses, many of the lecture format classes

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Electrical and Control Engineering

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harry Courtney Powell, University of Virginia; Maite Brandt-Pearce, University of Virginia; Ronald D. Williams P.E., University of Virginia; Robert M. Weikle, University of Virginia; Lloyd R. Harriott, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

approach is problem-based or project-basedlearning. In problem-based learning, students are presented with problems to solve and thendiscover the material needed. In contrast, project-based learning is more hands-on with physicalhardware as the motivator for the solution-space search.11 An advantage of project-basedlearning, in our view, is the close connection to real-world constraints including methods ofmanufacture and assembly. We have found that this approach is very engaging to students, andthat when properly conceived, we can achieve both depth and breadth of understanding.12Anecdotally, many potential employers that we speak with show a strong preference for studentsthat have had practical experience in their undergraduate education. This

Conference Session

Problem-based and Challenge-based Learning

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Holly M. Matusovich, Virginia Tech; Marie C. Paretti, Virginia Tech; Brett D. Jones, Virginia Tech; Philip R. Brown, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

PBL and TED functionin real-world classroom settings. In the methods section of this paper, we detail the differencesbetween the two sites that could influence student motivation. However, our results do show thatthe motivational impacts of the pedagogies themselves can be qualitatively explicated from otherfactors at the research sites.FrameworkThe MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation consists of five components that were derived fromresearch and theory as critical to student engagement in academic settings, including:empowerment, usefulness, success, interest, and caring 16, 24. The name of the model, MUSIC, isan acronym based on the second letter of “eMpowerment” and the first letter of the other fourcomponents. The model, based on social

Conference Session

Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 1

Collection

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Meagan Eleanor Ita, Arvinas; Monica Farmer Cox, The Ohio State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY), Equity

our ability to flow professionally and discuss real-time racial issues in ourorganization and the world was unique. A portion of our work time included time for reflectionand healing as people died from COVID19 and grappled with systemic oppression, racialviolence, and avoidance of deep conversations and accountability for deep-seeded isms in theworld. We processed the workplace and life through our lenses, discussing several books aboutfeminism and race in the process.We want to write this paper for several reasons. First is the dearth of literature about workrelationships between Black and white women in higher education, particularly in engineeringenvironments. Anecdotal reports from diversity leaders say that women in engineering

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aly Tawfik, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Janis Terpenny, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Richard Goff, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

instruction differences betweenWednesday and Friday workshops. The authors believe that these examples and many similarones are the main reason why students’ satisfaction was significantly different betweenWednesday and Friday workshops.1. World-map activityThis activity was designed with the objectives of helping students acquire global perspectives onthe population concentrations and trends around the globe, as well as the oil productions andconsumptions, and its abundance and scarcity for different countries across the globe. It washoped that the students would see and comprehend the relations between the populations,population trends, and oil productions and needs of several countries, and reflect on thisinformation. The students were handed an

Conference Session

Student Attitudes and Perceptions

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tuba Yildirim, University of Pittsburgh; Mary Besterfield-Sacre, University of Pittsburgh; Larry Shuman, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

strategies compared to students with lowself-efficacy [9, 10]. These findings suggest that higher self-efficacy should be indicative of bettermodeling skills and outcomes in modeling.In the context of modeling, self-efficacy beliefs correspond to one’s perception of his or hermodeling capability; i.e., the capability to create an abstraction of real world through use ofnatural (e.g. English) and / or symbolic languages (e.g. algebra, computer codes). Modeling inengineering requires development of a further set of skills that, to the novice user, at least, maybe daunting. Obtaining higher modeling capabilities is a complex and somewhat troublesomeprocess of integrating multidisciplinary engineering knowledge with creativity andimplementation skills

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Division Technical Session 6

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

S. M. Mizanoor Rahman, University of West Florida

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

learning tool. It happenedbecause the robot is an embodied physically existed dynamic device that provided kinestheticexperiential learning opportunity to the learners, and enhanced physical and mental engagement.Students’ trust towards the robot as a learning tool is higher because the students found the robota good performer helping them learning the concepts easily without any error [6], [18].The students had lower cognitive workload [19] while comprehending the engineering conceptsusing the robot over without using the robot. It is assumed that the real-world examples of theconcepts illustrated through the applications of the robot made the concepts easily understandableand clearer that imparted lower cognitive workload on the students while

Conference Session

Imagining and Reimagining Engineering Education as a Dynamic System

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Donna M. Riley, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Alan Cheville, Bucknell University; Jennifer Karlin, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Thomas A. De Pree, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

of the International Network for Engineering Studies (INES); past chair of the ASEE Liberal Education / Engineering and Society Division; and a former member of the Society for the History of Technology’s (SHOT) Executive Council. Publications include /Calculating a Natural World: Scientists, Engineers and Computers during the Rise of U.S. Cold War Research/ (MIT Press, 2006).Dr. Donna M. Riley, Purdue University, West Lafayette Donna Riley is Kamyar Haghighi Head of the School of Engineering Education and Professor of Engi- neering Education at Purdue University.Dr. Alan Cheville, Bucknell University Alan Cheville studied optoelectronics and ultrafast optics at Rice University, followed by 14 years as a

Conference Session

STEM Education and Intercultural Competence

Collection

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Margaret Pinnell, University of Dayton; Leanne Petry, Central State University; Elizabeth Generas, Wright State University; Amy Anderson; Marjorie Langston Langston; Douglas Picard, Greene County Career Center; Camryn Lanise Justice, University of Dayton

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)

participate in RET programs reportincreased confidence in their teaching abilities, a better understanding of the engineering designprocess, and an enhanced ability to integrate real-world applications into their lessons.Additionally, these programs often lead to the development of professional networks and supportsystems that are invaluable for ongoing professional growth. As a result, RET programs not onlyimprove teachers' content knowledge but also their pedagogical skills, ultimately benefiting theirstudents' learning experiences and outcomes (Bowen, Shume & Kellmeyer, 2021, Margot, &Kettler, 2019, Sungur, Saylan, Ates & Garzon, 2023, Klein-Gardner, Johnston & Benson, 2012,Pop, Dixon & Hogue, 2020, Nichol, Crawford, Barr &

Conference Session

ERM: Problem Solving and Conceptual Understanding

Collection

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Boni Yraguen, Georgia Institute of Technology; Hannia Koolman, Georgia Institute of Technology; Roxanne Moore, Georgia Institute of Technology; Katherine Fu, Georgia Institute of Technology; Anna Lummus, Georgia Institute of Technology

, students undervalue skills required toeffectively communicate results and ideas, and they do not understand how these types ofcommunication skills apply to the “real world” [3]. Ideally, recent graduates should be equipped 1to apply knowledge from their degree programs without the need for further training. To addressthe gap between knowledge and application, some schools have started implementing co-opprograms [4, 5], but co-op programs are not practical for schools with limited access to partnercompanies and may not be practical for students based on location and timing. Thisdisproportionately affects rural communities, as well as disadvantaged

Conference Session

Critical Thinking, Leadership, and Creativity

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

the world sees the human species,” work that wouldbecome the basis of his Olmsted Award.8 We focus today on the productive tension between hisinterest in teaching and research.9In this respect, probably the most important thing to note in this necessarily abbreviated paper isthat, having promised the moon, Koen, like so many PhD students, received no real training as ateacher while in graduate school. Undaunted, Koen applied the same heuristic he used during hisstudies in nuclear engineering, which was to canvass the state of the art in the discipline withinwhich he wished to claim expertise. It was through this process, and through informationprovided by a classmate, that Koen discovered the Personalized System of Instruction.10PSI’s Origin

Conference Session

Learning and Assessment in ME

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark F. Schar, Stanford University; Sarah L. Billington, Stanford University; Sheri D. Sheppard, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Company and Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer with Intuit in Silicon Valley. Dr. Schar has a BSS from Northwestern University, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering is from Stanford University.Dr. Sarah L. Billington, Stanford University Sarah Billington is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineer- ing at Stanford University. Her research group focuses on sustainable, durable construction materials and their application to structures and construction. She teaches an undergraduate class on introductory solid mechanics as well as graduate courses in structural concrete behavior and design. Most recently she has

Conference Session

Statics Fanatics 1

Collection

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yemisi Oyewola, Utah State University; Brian Cowburn, Rochester Institute of Technology (COE); Ryan Barlow, zyBooks, A Wiley Brand; Wade Goodridge, Utah State University; Kurt Becker, Utah State University - Engineering Education

traditionally found in civil and mechanical engineering,such as trusses and pulley systems. There are limited opportunities for biological andenvironmental engineering students to engage with real-world problems that demonstrate therelevancy of statics to their own disciplines. With an ever-growing need for these majors, a lackin the retention rate of students in the majors is detrimental to their self-efficacy and overallsuccess in the disciplines as the knowledge of statics is one of the basics, they needed for theircareer success.Therefore, it is necessary to re-envision the teaching of statics class because it is a requiredfoundational course the biological, and environmental engineering students. It is believed thatintroducing major specific

Conference Session

DEED Technical Session 4 Best in DEED

Collection

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Courtney Pfluger, Northeastern University; Sindia Rivera-Jimenez, University of Florida; Anastasia Hauser, University of Kentucky

Paper ID #37812A Comparative Study of Collaborative and Inclusive SkillsDevelopment in Capstone Design Teams at Three DifferentEngineering InstitutionsCourtney Pfluger (Teaching Professor) Dr. Courtney Pfluger took a position in Fall 2011 as an Assistant Teaching Professor at Northeastern University as a part of the First Year Engineering Faculty and affiliated Faculty in the Chemical Engineering Department. Dr. Pfluger redesigned and piloted the first-year curriculum which included engineering design and computational problem solving using the Engineering Grand Challenges as real-world applications of global

Collection

2023 Rocky Mountain Section Conference

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt; Daniel Godrick; Joan Tisdale; Melissa Davis

course as articulated to students on the course syllabus have beengenerally consistent over time, shown in Figure 1. The topics covered in the engineering math /engineering tools and analysis course overlap with material also taught in precalculus, calculus 1,and MATLAB courses, while also integrating material taught in calculus 2, calculus 3, linearalgebra and differential equations, circuits and electronics, dynamics, and data / measurementscourses. The engineering tools and analysis course also had additional goals to build students’sense of engineering identity, belonging in engineering, and excitement and interest in futureengineering courses.Upon completing this course, students will be able to:• Identify, formulate, and solve [real-world

Conference Session

Instrument Design and Development

Collection

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yashin Brijmohan, University of Nebraska Lincoln; Grace Panther, University of Nebraska - Lincoln; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

graduates [5].However, despite extensive research about how to promote change in undergraduate STEMeducation, systematic change has been limited [6], [7]. Many change initiatives and models thathave been utilized to study and promote change have failed to achieve the adoption of research-based instructional practices at universities [8], [9]. Similar trends in research have beenidentified within engineering education [10]. Thus, it is evident that alternative and more holisticways to understand and support change are needed.The COVID-19 pandemic created a real-world laboratory to explore what instructional practicesand strategies were changed and sustained when instructors were forced to use new instructionalmethods under uncertain situations

Conference Session

Student Division (STDT) Technical Session 2: Student Success and Resources

Collection

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine Drinkwater, Duke University; Karis Boyd-Sinkler, Duke University; Rebecca Simmons, Duke University

Tagged Divisions

Student Division (STDT)

should join, and any differences between the two.The research questions that guided this study were: RQ1: How do undergraduate engineering students perceive the amount of time spent engaging in engineering clubs? RQ2: Why are undergraduate engineering students motivated to join engineering clubs? RQ3: What are the perceived benefits of engineering club participation?Students are motivated to join engineering clubs to find community with peers [3], applyknowledge to real-world settings [4], prepare for their careers [5], develop new skills [6], [7],and pursue personal interests [8]. Design clubs (both competition and impact-focused teams)provide additional opportunities to practice the design process [9], manufacture parts

Conference Session

Engineering Education Culture: Mental Health, Inclusion, and the Soul of Our Community

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Jessica R. Deters, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Marie C. Paretti, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

hardness: his experience in a particularly challenging course. Participant 1001M “naturallyenjoyed the class and enjoyed the concepts” so he put a “lot of time into reading the book andinto looking at some real-world applications.” Because he enjoyed the class, it was easy for himto spend time on it, but he did not see that time investment pay off in the exams. He discussedfeeling frustrated that he did not do well on the exams despite feeling like he really understoodthe content. He had to take on a specific mindset to make it through the course: deciding to focuson what he was learning rather than on his grades. This incident reflects participant 1001M’sdeveloping identity as an engineer – his exam scores did not reflect his understanding of nor

Conference Session

Energy Conversion and Conservation Division Technical Session 2: Solar Track

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Matt Aldeman, Illinois State University; Jin Ho Jo, Illinois State University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

simplify the evaluation of the model passive solar homesin this project, the heliodon is only used to simulate the conditions at solar noon. At solar noon,the azimuth angle is zero. Of course, like most simulations, the heliodon is not perfectly accurate. One of theinaccuracies of the heliodon comes from the fact that the two-by-four arm holding the light bulbis much too short to be realistic. For practical purposes, the two-by-four arm is only eight feetlong, but to match the scale of the real world it would need to be much longer. Because the armis too short, the angular diameter of the light bulb is larger than the actual angular diameter of theSun as seen from Earth. Specifically, the light bulb is approximately 2 ¼” in diameter, and

Collection

Proceedings of the 2020 ASEE PSW Section Conference, canceled

Authors

Saharnaz Baghdadchi, University of California, San Diego; Rachel Bristol, University of California San Diego; Leah Klement, UC San Diego; Paul Andreas Hadjipieris; Sheena Ghanbari Serslev, University of California San Diego ; Carolyn L Sandoval, University of California, San Diego

tests and the ones who opted out of taking thetests. The final exam grades and the survey results were used as the assessment tools foranalyzing the effectiveness of the take-home tests in the revised and fully flipped course in theFall and Winter quarters. Our guiding research question reflects the transformation of the course;we aim to assess the impact of the course design, and more specifically take-home tests, ondeveloping critical thinking skills.Literature reviewInnovation in engineering educationAccording to the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), engineeringstudents who enter the discipline should have a high level of preparedness when it comes to theirmotivation to learn, a deep understanding of the real-world

Collection

Chemical Engineering Education

Authors

MUJAN SEIF; MATTHEW BECK

academic Polymer science is an area of strong overlap between chemi-institutions can easily control.[5-8] However, engineering pro- cal and materials engineering, and is therefore a promisinggrams do have the opportunity to emphasize the real-world base from which to engage students in both disciplines andimportance and impact of engineering practice immediately motivate cross-disciplinary discussion. In addition, “shape-upon students’ arrival in an effort to establish genuine enthu- memory” polymers are an exciting new class of materials withsiasm early in students’ college careers.[7-10] While challenging a host of promising applications (see, e.g., Reference 27).texts and difficult problem sets may dim the

Collection

2019 CIEC

Authors

Sean Tavares; Shawn Banker; Christopher LeBlanc; Jonathan Ferguson

, this didnot occur in the initial capstone collaboration. However, now that the challenges in the next Proceedings of the 2019 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration Copyright ©2019, American Society for Engineering Education Session ETD 545steps in this project are better appreciated, it will be possible to give students more explicitscopes of work. This should give students a clearer definition of what is expected of them, whilestill giving them an appropriate amount of “real world” open-endedness and ambiguity.One aspect that has been deemed successful in both this collaboration, and with ET

Conference Session

Engineering in the Elementary School

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Cunningham, Museum of Science, Boston

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

howengineering can reinforce science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts concepts thatstudents may be concurrently studying.Real-World Context: All EiE activities—those created for the curriculum as well as PDsessions—are very carefully crafted so they are rooted in a real-world context. Students, as wellas teachers, respond to “real” problems that are relevant to their lives and cite this as a mainreason for deep engagement with our materials. The problems have participants apply science,mathematics, and other disciplines, thus helping to demonstrate how these academic subjects canbe relevant in their lives. In defining context, staff attend very closely to creating problems thatwill be inviting, accessible, and engaging to women and other