Board # 115 : EEGRC Poster: Improving Pre-service Elementary Teachers' Nature of Engineering Views with the Use of EV3 Robotics

Erdogan Kaya; Anna Danielle Newley; Hasan Deniz; Ezgi Yesilyurt

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Student Division Poster Session
Tagged Division: Student
Page Count: 2
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--27698
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/27698
Download Count: 794

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Paper Authors

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Erdogan Kaya University of Nevada, Las Vegas orcid.org/0000-0002-3211-3259

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Erdogan Kaya is a PhD student in science education at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is working as a graduate assistant and teaching science methods courses. Prior to beginning the PhD program, he received his MS degree in computer science and engineering. He coached robotics teams and was awarded several grants that promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). He has been volunteering in many education outreach programs including Science Fair and Robotics programs such as First Robotics competitions. Over the past four years, he published several journal papers and presented at national and international conferences. Areas of research interest include science and technology education, STEM, and robotics in science education.

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Anna Danielle Newley Sonoran Schools

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Anna Newley received a B.A. degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University. She was an employee with the Tempe Elementary School District as a kindergarten, and second grade teacher, and instructional assistant until 2012. From 2012 to the current, she has been employed with the Sonoran Schools District. Presently, at Sonoran Science Academy-Phoenix, she is a fifth grade teacher. She is the contact for several grants awarded to the school. Mrs. Newley coaches the exploratory robotics club for grades 5-8, the Elementary Science Olympiad team, and the competitive high school robotics team, FTC. She contributed to international published papers, national proceedings, and is the process of writing several children's books. This summer she will present a workshop on robotics for elementary school students.

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Hasan Deniz University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Hasan Deniz is an Associate Professor of Science Education at University of Nevada Las Vegas. He teaches undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level courses in science education program at University of Nevada Las Vegas. His research agenda includes epistemological beliefs in science and evolution education. He is recently engaged in professional development activities supported by several grants targeting to increase elementary teachers’ knowledge and skills to integrate science, language arts, and engineering education within the context of Next Generation Science Standards.

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Ezgi Yesilyurt University of Nevada, Las Vegas orcid.org/0000-0002-1444-1048

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Ezgi Yesilyurt is a PhD student in curriculum and instruction/science education at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is working as a graduate assistant and teaching science methods courses. She received her MS degree and BS degree in elementary science education. She participated European Union Projects in which she conducted series of professional development programs for in-service science teachers. Areas of research interest are engineering education, inquiry learning and evolution education.

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Abstract

Improving Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Nature of Engineering Views with the Use of EV3 Robotics (EEGRC Poster)

The need for engineering education for K-12 students is an ever-present concern of makers of educational policy in the United States. With the release of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), engineering design is raised to the level of scientific inquiry. Both pre-service teachers and in-service teachers should be exposed to engineering design through professional development programs and modification of existing science teacher education courses before they are asked to integrate engineering design to their science teaching. The aim of this paper is to document to what extent pre-service elementary teachers improve their nature of engineering (NOE) views after taking an undergraduate level elementary science teaching methods course. This course was modified to make it more compatible with the Next Generation Science Standards. The course in its modified form includes engineering design component. Specifically, the engineering design component was addressed with the use of educational robotics. The pre-service elementary teachers, with no earlier educational robotics experience, were introduced to the engineering design through educational robotics challenges. Pre-service teachers’ NOE views were assessed at the beginning and at the end of the methods course to determine whether they improved their NOE views. NGSS aligned challenges with the Mindstorms EV3 educational robotics kit were used to explicitly teach pre-service elementary teachers about NOE. Because of the popularity of First Lego League (FLL) competition in engaging elementary students to engineering fields, researchers used materials associated with this successful program during the course. Simultaneously, pre-service teachers reflected on how these lessons could apply to their future students’ understanding of NOE views. In this study, we conceptualized NOE views as engineering design ideas are tentative, subjective, socially and culturally embedded, depends on human imagination and creativity, requires social collaboration and, subject to empirical tests. We found that pre-service elementary teachers improved their NOE views across these NOE aspects. We also found anecdotal evidence that pre-service teachers felt more confident to integrate engineering design into their future science teaching.

Keywords: nature of engineering, pre-service elementary teachers, EV3, educational robotics, engineering design process

Citation
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Kaya, E., & Newley, A. D., & Deniz, H., & Yesilyurt, E. (2017, June), Board # 115 : EEGRC Poster: Improving Pre-service Elementary Teachers' Nature of Engineering Views with the Use of EV3 Robotics Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27698

TY - CPAPER
AB - Improving Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Nature of Engineering Views with the Use of EV3 Robotics (EEGRC Poster)

The need for engineering education for K-12 students is an ever-present concern of makers of educational policy in the United States. With the release of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), engineering design is raised to the level of scientific inquiry. Both pre-service teachers and in-service teachers should be exposed to engineering design through professional development programs and modification of existing science teacher education courses before they are asked to integrate engineering design to their science teaching. The aim of this paper is to document to what extent pre-service elementary teachers improve their nature of engineering (NOE) views after taking an undergraduate level elementary science teaching methods course. This course was modified to make it more compatible with the Next Generation Science Standards. The course in its modified form includes engineering design component. Specifically, the engineering design component was addressed with the use of educational robotics. The pre-service elementary teachers, with no earlier educational robotics experience, were introduced to the engineering design through educational robotics challenges. Pre-service teachers’ NOE views were assessed at the beginning and at the end of the methods course to determine whether they improved their NOE views. NGSS aligned challenges with the Mindstorms EV3 educational robotics kit were used to explicitly teach pre-service elementary teachers about NOE. Because of the popularity of First Lego League (FLL) competition in engaging elementary students to engineering fields, researchers used materials associated with this successful program during the course. Simultaneously, pre-service teachers reflected on how these lessons could apply to their future students’ understanding of NOE views. In this study, we conceptualized NOE views as engineering design ideas are tentative, subjective, socially and culturally embedded, depends on human imagination and creativity, requires social collaboration and, subject to empirical tests. We found that pre-service elementary teachers improved their NOE views across these NOE aspects. We also found anecdotal evidence that pre-service teachers felt more confident to integrate engineering design into their future science teaching.

Keywords: nature of engineering, pre-service elementary teachers, EV3, educational robotics, engineering design process

AU - Erdogan Kaya
AU - Anna Danielle Newley
AU - Hasan Deniz
AU - Ezgi Yesilyurt
CY - Columbus, Ohio
DA - 2017/06/24
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board # 115 : EEGRC Poster: Improving Pre-service Elementary Teachers' Nature of Engineering Views with the Use of EV3 Robotics
UR - https://peer.asee.org/27698
DO - 10.18260/1-2--27698
ER -