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2005-2051 Penn State University NSF GK-12 Project: Using Web-based Education and Interaction with K-12 and College Freshman to Promote Science and Engineering

Elana Chapman /Pennsylvania State University, Angela Lueking /Pennsylvania State University, Robin Tallon /Pennsylvania State University, Leanne Avery /Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Phil Henning /Henning Group, LLC., William Carlsen /Pennsylvania State University, Daniel Haworth /Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

Penn State University has hosted an NSF-sponsored GK-12 Outreach project for the past five years, and has just begun the second phase of the project. The Penn State project utilizes the talents of many science and engineering graduate students as teachers, mentors and role models for the K-12 classrooms. The project focuses on developing skills of students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics through the use of Advanced Transportation Technologies. A new project component was devised and implemented--the interaction of K-12 students with college freshman via a website project. The college freshmen were asked to create a website describing a component of "Clean Energy", which was to include an assessment tool to provide feedback on their website. When possible, the college freshmen were encouraged to use active learning and inquiry-based learning concepts. This was encouraged so that the college freshman had an opportunity to practice developing scientific inquiry as a skill through a presentation, and provided the K-12 classroom students a unique opportunity to learn through inquiry. The K-12 students were invited to participate in the research by reviewing and critiquing these websites through feedback via the website to the college freshman. The feedback could take many forms, including specific comments and critique along with a creative assessment tool that the college freshman decided to present with their subject materials. This paper will review the educational outcomes garnered by the students, and provide feedback and analysis from the K-12 and college freshman participants.

Introduction

Inquiry-based learning encourages students to become active learners who engage in hands-on research and subsequently develop the ability to analyze, cope with ambiguity in solving "real world" problems, and explain relationships between phenomena in ways that tie together the conceptual and the observed1. It also lends itself particularly well to interactive, computer-

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Carlsen, W., & Tallon, R., & Henning, P., & Avery, L., & Lueking, A., & Haworth, D., & Chapman, E. (2005, June), Penn State University Nsf Gk 12 Project: Using Web Based Education And Interaction With K 12 And College Freshmen To Promote Science And Engineering Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14791