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From Professor to Teacher: Who Knows What Engineering Is Best in the K-12 Classroom?

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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

Pre-College: Working with Teachers to Improve K-12 Engineering Education

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education Division

Page Count

17

DOI

10.18260/1-2--28392

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/28392

Download Count

623

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Paper Authors

biography

Mary Ann Jacobs Ed.D. Manhattan College

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Mary Ann Jacobs, scc is an assistant professor in the School of Education. She prepares secondary teacher candidates in all content areas through her courses in secondary pedagogy. Her areas of interest include STEM education, brain compatible strategies, and action research in the classroom.

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biography

Zahra Shahbazi Manhattan College

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Zhahra Shahbazi is as an assistant professor of Mechanical engineering at Manhattan College. She earned a B.S. degree from the University of Tehran (mechanical engineering), M.S. from Amir Kabir University of Techonology (biomedical engineering) and a Ph.D. degrees from the University of Conecticut (mechanical engineering). She also received a certificate in college instruction from the University of Connecticut. Her current research involves modeling and simulation of protein molecules as nano bio robots with applications in new drug design. The other aspect of her research is engineering education.

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Anthony Scotti Manhattan College

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Anthony Scotti is a Secondary Education Major with a concentration in Mathematics at Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY. As a senior, Anthony will be graduating in February 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Education and Mathematics for teaching grades 4-12. Anthony is currently the Office Manager for the Higher Achievement Program at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, NY, a program that prepares seventh grade boys for the Test for Admissions into Catholic High Schools. As a future STEM educator, Anthony looks forward to teaching students the amazing opportunities Mathematics can offer them.

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Kathleen Christal Mancuso Manhattan College

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Kathleen Mancuso is a Secondary Education Major with a concentration in Chemistry at Manhattan College located in Riverdale, NY. As a senior, Kathleen will be graduating in February 2017 with a teaching certification for grades 5-12 in New York State and a B.S. in Education and Chemistry. Her passion for teaching began in her high school chemistry class with Mrs. Merante, after seeing just how valuable a talented and determined teacher was to future STEM fields. Kathleen enjoys teaching tennis over the summer to students ages 8-16 and is looking forward to her graduation to begin her career.

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Alexandra Emma Lehnes Manhattan College

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Alexandra Lehnes is a graduate student planning on graduating in 2017 from Manhattan College with a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a certificate in aerospace and propulsion. She is also the coordinator of the Engineering STAR Center and Manhattan College and a graduate assistant for the mechanical engineering department. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Manhattan College in 2016. At the STAR center she works primarily with the engineering ambassadors program organizing visits to high schools to promote engineering, creating lessons to be presented, running the meetings, and presenting the outcome of the program at various conferences. Her research interests range from what she is currently associated with, engineering education, and what she plans on pursuing post-graduation, design in naval and aerospace. She is an active member of Tau Beta Pi, Pi Tau Sigma, Pi Mu Epsilon, Epsilon Sigma Pi, ASME, SWE, ASHRAE, and ASEE.

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Abstract

With the need for STEM education increasing, a lack of Engineering Education remains. We have created a way for teachers to delve into engineering education. Offering a series of professional development days, STEM teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools were able to attend mini-workshops conducted by engineering professors. The goal of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of the series of professional development days. This professional development is part of an NSF grant promoting engineering education. As during the past two professional development days, the hope of the final session was for STEM teachers to engage with engineering professors in a topic that could be taught in an elementary, middle, and/or high school classroom. Likewise, the engineering faculty was able to learn the classroom pedagogy used by the teachers in their daily workplace. In preparing the mini-workshops for the STEM teachers to attend, it was important to focus the topics on ways to integrate STEM education into every classroom, placing an emphasis on gaining new knowledge, problem-solving skills, and using hands-on activities as a basis for learning engineering concepts. Reviewing results from previous professional development days, teachers expressed a need for workshops or topics relevant to their own curriculum. Responding to this request, we strayed from the previous idea of having the engineering faculty choose topics. Instead, we based the workshops on topics found in math and science curriculum. By doing this, the teachers would find a direct correlation between the engineering topic explained in the workshop and the curriculum they teach. After proposing the math and science topics to the engineering faculty, nine faculty members designed workshops that would allow the teachers to experience both a lecture and hands-on activity segment surrounding the math and science curriculum. For this professional development day, 18 teachers, education professors, and professional development consultants attended the workshops. Using a variety of materials from wires and lemons to computer software and marshmallows, the engineering faculty demonstrated the concept to the teachers and allowed them to find a correlation between engineering and their own curriculum. Teachers drafted lessons based on the workshops and submitted them to their engineering professor as well as our center. After close review and suggestions, the drafts were sent back to the teachers for revisions and then submitted to our center for final approval. Lessons were then taught in the teacher’s respective classroom. Approved lesson plans were added to our website for promulgation among STEM educators. A post session survey was completed by the engineering faculty and the teachers. The results from this survey will allow us to continue to look into the success of this program and with the support of the NSF grant continue to help STEM teachers in promoting engineering education.

Jacobs, M. A., & Shahbazi, Z., & Scotti, A., & Mancuso, K. C., & Lehnes, A. E. (2017, June), From Professor to Teacher: Who Knows What Engineering Is Best in the K-12 Classroom? Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28392

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2017 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015