Lachney, M. (2019, June), Mind the Mindstorms: Technocultures of Engineering Education in Three U.S. Elementary Schools  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33111

\bibitem{asee_peer_33111}
  Lachney, M. (2019, June), \emph{Mind the Mindstorms: Technocultures of Engineering Education in Three U.S. Elementary Schools}
  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida.
  10.18260/1-2--33111

Michael Lachney.  "Mind the Mindstorms: Technocultures of Engineering Education in Three U.S. Elementary Schools".  2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2019.  https://peer.asee.org/33111 Internet.  12 Mar, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_33111}
  Michael Lachney.
  "Mind the Mindstorms: Technocultures of Engineering Education in Three U.S. Elementary Schools".
  \emph{2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2019.
  https://peer.asee.org/33111 Internet.  12 Mar, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_33111
author = "Michael Lachney"
title = "Mind the Mindstorms: Technocultures of Engineering Education in Three U.S. Elementary Schools"
booktitle = "2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2019"
month = "June"
address = "Tampa, Florida"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/33111}
number = {10.18260/1-2--33111}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The LEGO Group’s proprietary educational robotics kit, LEGO Mindstorms, has been included in numerous studies on engineering education at all levels. Despite its popularity, there has been little empirical work on Mindstorms as a cultural artifact. Given its popularity, what is the cultural significance of Mindstorms in education? And, how does this shape its meanings and uses in the classroom? To give partial answers to these questions, this paper utilizes the concept of technocultures as a lens through which to analyze ethnographic data from three U.S. public elementary schools where Mindstorms kits were used to support STEM education. Findings reveal how Mindstorms can help to enroll larger technocultures of robotics, automation, and engineering into teachers’ lessons, but that these larger technocultures do not necessarily determine local instantiations. Teachers used Mindstorms in ways that spoke to their own values and social capital, which were shaped by school schedules and spaces, curriculum demands, and class and racial inequities. This paper ends by considering how the moral and ethical implications of robotics might be integrated into elementary engineering education. 

AU  - Michael Lachney
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Mind the Mindstorms: Technocultures of Engineering Education in Three U.S. Elementary Schools
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/33111
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--33111
ER  -