Mathis, C. A., & Siverling, E. A., & Glancy, A. W., & Guzey, S. S., & Moore, T. J. (2016, June), Students' Use of Evidence-Based Reasoning in K-12 Engineering: A Case Study (Fundamental)  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25943

\bibitem{asee_peer_25943}
  Mathis, C. A., \& Siverling, E. A., \& Glancy, A. W., \& Guzey, S. S., \& Moore, T. J. (2016, June), \emph{Students' Use of Evidence-Based Reasoning in K-12 Engineering: A Case Study (Fundamental)}
  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  10.18260/p.25943

Corey A. Mathis, Emilie A. Siverling, Aran W. Glancy, Siddika Selcen Guzey, and Tamara J. Moore.  "Students' Use of Evidence-Based Reasoning in K-12 Engineering: A Case Study (Fundamental)".  2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2016.  https://peer.asee.org/25943 Internet.  29 Jun, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_25943}
  Corey A. Mathis, Emilie A. Siverling, Aran W. Glancy, Siddika Selcen Guzey, and Tamara J. Moore.
  "Students' Use of Evidence-Based Reasoning in K-12 Engineering: A Case Study (Fundamental)".
  \emph{2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2016.
  https://peer.asee.org/25943 Internet.  29 Jun, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_25943
author = "Corey A. Mathis, Emilie A. Siverling, Aran W. Glancy, Siddika Selcen Guzey, and Tamara J. Moore"
title = "Students' Use of Evidence-Based Reasoning in K-12 Engineering: A Case Study (Fundamental)"
booktitle = "2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2016"
month = "June"
address = "New Orleans, Louisiana"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/25943}
number = {10.18260/p.25943}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), along with other documents related to K-12 policy and curriculum, have brought increased attention to engineering content and practices in K-12 classrooms. One of the essential scientific and engineering practices in NGSS is engaging in argument from evidence. In the science education research community, this is represented by the practice of scientific argumentation, which relates to making and supporting claims about phenomena. In engineering, this practice instead relates to developing solutions to engineering problems, through which students can use evidence from science and mathematics, as well as criteria and constraints to support their design decisions. This practice of evidence-based reasoning (EBR) was used as the basis of this study. The following questions were used to guide this research: In what steps of the engineering process of design are students using EBR? and For what purposes are students using EBR when participating in engineering process of design within a STEM integration unit?  

This research used an exploratory case study design to investigate one middle student teams’ use of EBR in the engineering process of design. This team participated in a STEM integration unit with a life science focus. Transcripts of audio recordings of the team’s discussions and student worksheets filled out during the engineering lessons were analyzed in three steps. Toulmin’s Argument Pattern was used to identify instances of EBR within students’ oral and written communication. The Framework for Quality K-12 Engineering Education was then used to determine in which steps of the process of design these instances occurred. Finally, open coding was used to identify the purposes for which students were using EBR in the process of design.

The findings show that patterns emerged with regards to how the team used EBR within the process of design. EBR was found in all stages of the engineering process of design that were analyzed in this study (i.e., plan, implement, test, evaluate, communicate), but it was most prevalent in the initial design-planning and redesign-evaluation steps. The student team used EBR for four main purposes during the engineering lessons: brainstorming design ideas, negotiating prototype design, clarifying ideas with other team members, and explaining answers to questions that were presented by their teacher. During these instances, students used their science and mathematics knowledge, as well as information about the engineering problem, as evidence to support their reasoning about their design decisions. This shows that not only did three of the four students naturally use EBR during engineering design, but also that it can be used by students to integrate concepts and practices from engineering, science, and mathematics.

Keywords: STEM integration, evidence-based reasoning, argumentation, case study

AU  - Corey A. Mathis
AU  - Emilie A. Siverling
AU  - Aran W. Glancy
AU  - Siddika Selcen Guzey
AU  - Tamara J. Moore
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Students' Use of Evidence-Based Reasoning in K-12 Engineering: A Case Study (Fundamental)
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/25943
DO  - 10.18260/p.25943
ER  -