Engineering in K-12 Education Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects (2009) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Current State of K–12 Engineering Education
4 The Current State of K–12 Engineering Education
Pages 71-118
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From page 71... ...
Developing a curriculum does not guarantee that engineering education in K–12 will be successful. A critical factor is whether teachers -- from elementary generalists to middle school and high school specialists -- understand basic engineering concepts and are comfortable engaging in, and teaching, engi 71
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From page 72... ...
The materials ranged from 425 pages on a single 1The committee chose Prof. Welty because of his expertise in curriculum analysis, as well as his capacity as a co-principal investigator at the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE)
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From page 73... ...
To be included in the study, therefore, curricula had to meet the following specifications: The curriculum must engage students in the engineering-design pro cess or require that students analyze past solutions to engineering design problems. The curriculum must explore certain concepts (e.g., systems, con straints, analysis, modeling, optimization)
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A World in Motion Society for Automotive Engineers Middle School 10. Building Math Boston Museum of Science 11.
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Introduction to Engineering Design Project Lead the Way 30. Material World Modules Northwestern University 31.
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For example, the middle school program of "Project Lead the Way," Gateway to Technology, includes activities for making and testing CO2-powered dragsters, magnetic-levitation vehicles, water-bottle rockets, model rockets, and Rube Goldberg devices. The content of several curricula was organized around the design process.
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From page 77... ...
Specific branches of mathematics include arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Our analysis suggests that mathematics is a thin thread running through the beads in most of the K–12 engineering curricula.3 The thinness of the thread reflects the limited role of mathematics in the objectives, learning activities, and assessment tools of the curricula.
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From page 78... ...
The conclusions based on the data are then used to inform the design of subsequent vehicles. Similar instances of gathering and using data for vehicle design were found in the Models and Designs unit in the "Full Option Science System" and the Gateway to Technology unit of "Project Lead the Way." Other materials engage students in counting and measuring, completing tables, drawing graphs, and making inferences, such as evaluating pump dispensers, conducting surveys, and testing materials.
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From page 79... ...
Mathematics is a dominant thread in "The Infinity Project" and "Building Math." The latter is designed to teach students how principles learned in middle school algebra can be used in the context of engineering challenges. For example, in the Amazon Mission unit, students design an insulated carrier for transporting malaria medicine, a filtration system for removing mercury from water, and an intervention plan for containing the spread of a flu virus.
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From page 80... ...
scientific modes of inquiry that build knowledge and inform design decisions. The First Strand The most common science topics in the first strand found in K–12 engineering curricula relate to materials, mechanisms, electricity, energy, and structures and typically involve concepts such as force, work, motion, torque, friction, voltage, current, and resistance.
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From page 81... ...
In addition to teaching students about scientific investigations, they engage students in the generation, testing, revision, and validation of their ideas about protecting goods, making things stronger, and making models fly. In this sense, these curricula use scientific inquiry as a pedagogical strategy for building student knowledge of engineering design.
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From page 82... ...
. high school students understand the ways in which they will engineer the world of the future -- whether or not they pursue technical careers." "Invention, Innovation, and Inquiry" was created to "provide professional support for teachers interested in technological literacy in education." The Design Thread We defined "engineering design" as a purposeful, iterative process with an explicit goal governed by specifications and constraints.
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From page 83... ...
Similarly, in a project in the "Children Designing and Engineering"curriculum, student design teams are instructed to "know the problem, explore ideas, plan and develop, test, and present." The patterns are similar in curricula on the middle school and high school levels. For example, in "The Infinity Project," the design process includes the following steps: Identify the problem or objective.
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From page 84... ...
For example, in one "City Technology" unit, elementary students examine paper and plastic bags. In the "Design and Discovery" curriculum, middle school students study backpacks, toothpaste caps, and water bottles.
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From page 85... ...
For example, in "Building Math," middle school students design an insulated container of medicine that will maintain a temperature of 59°F to 86°F for a minimum of two hours. After gathering data about the insulating properties of various materials, each member of the design team sketches an idea for a container, describes it to the other members of his or her team, and then, "as a group," they "decide on one ‘best' solution." None of the curricula include procedures or expectations for conducting a formal analysis of alternative solutions, such as a trade-off matrix for making quantitative comparisons of the strengths and weaknesses of competing designs (Garmire, 2002)
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From page 86... ...
The "constraints" stipulate that the tower must be no more than 12 inches high, that the side of the base must not exceed 6 inches, and that the turbine must be less than 5 inches in diameter. The reasons for these specifications are not disclosed, but they do not appear to have a relationship to the problem being addressed or to reflect engineering design practices.
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From page 87... ...
that is nonfunctional." In those same materials, a prototype is defined as a "working model used to demonstrate and test some aspect of the design or the design as a whole." In the Gateway to Technology unit of the "Project Lead the Way" curriculum, modeling is defined as "the process of creating threedimensional representations of design solutions." Computer modeling is defined as "the use of computer software applications that allows the user to visualize an idea in a three-dimensional format." As these characterizations suggest, most of the curricula engage students in making things, usually from everyday materials, to help them visualize their designs and present them to others. For example, in Building Structures with Young Children, students construct towers and enclosures using building blocks.
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From page 88... ...
For the most part, models are not used to represent key variables in the early stages of the design process but are presented as steps in the later stage of the design process for refining a relatively mature design solution to a problem. Thus models are used to visualize a design, take it to a higher level of refinement, and communicate its features to others.
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From page 89... ...
However, improving a design is not always synonymous with making trade-offs. In most of the curricular materials, optimization is equated with "think harder" and "make it even better" as part of iteration and redesign.
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From page 90... ...
However, neither the concept of trade-offs nor the concept of making trade-offs in the interest of optimization is addressed directly in the curricular materials. The unit on Inquiry: The Ultimate School Bag in the "Invention, Innovation, and Inquiry" curriculum includes the redesign and improvement of a backpack for carrying schoolbooks and personal items.
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From page 91... ...
The same is true in "The Infinity Project for Middle School," which stresses that most technological systems follow a pattern of inputs, processes, and outputs. The materials provide illustrations of sophisticated systems in the form of simple flow charts that accompany explanations in the text of how the systems work; the illustrations are also organizers for laboratory activities related to such things as digital music, digital images, and data encryption.
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From page 92... ...
Through a simplified form of reverse engineering, the students, in theory, discover that the accident was caused by systems breakdowns in the NASA organization, as well as a failure in the space shuttle technology. Reasons for Teaching Engineering We were not surprised that the reasons for including engineering content in these curricula are as diverse as the materials themselves.
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From page 93... ...
children to have fun as they use their knowledge of science and engineering to design, create, and improve solutions." "Design and Discovery" "engages students in hands-on engineering and design activities intended to foster knowledge, skill development, and problem solving in the areas of science and engineering." Only a few curricula define their objective as teaching engineering concepts and skills to prepare young people for further education and, ultimately, engineering careers. The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies curriculum, "Designing for Tomorrow," encourages and prepares students "for success in college and professional careers in fields such as business, engineering, and technology." One of the central goals of "The Infinity Project" is to "help close the gap between the number of engineering graduates we currently produce in the United States, and the large need for high-quality engineering graduates in the near future." And PLTW materials "provide students with the rigorous, relevant, reality-based knowledge necessary to pursue engineering or engineering technology programs in college."
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From page 94... ...
Several developers deliberately passed up opportunities to address engineering concepts and skills to focus on other problems or opportunities. Some explained that their projects were required to include enough science content to be considered part of science education, and that too much emphasis on engineering design, constraints, modeling, optimization, and technological systems could tip the scale toward engineering.
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From page 95... ...
Table 4-2 summarizes what we have learned about the dissemination of these curricula. Implementation and Costs The costs for curricular materials range from $1,100 for a series of eight three-ring binders to no charge at all for a half-dozen large boxes of curricular and laboratory materials.
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From page 96... ...
Infinity The high school course has been used in 350 schools in 37 states The modules on robotics, sound engineering, Project and some schools in several other countries. The materials are rocketry, the engineering design process, and being used as an introductory engineering course at Southern environmental engineering have been incorporated Methodist University and DeVry University.
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Based on sales figures and teacher have received formal professional development to participation in professional development workshops, the teach the EiE curriculum. The difference reflects developer (Boston Museum of Sciences)
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("The Infinity Project" and "Designing for Tomorrow" have similar, but less formal requirements on a smaller scale.) Several curriculum projects at the elementary and middle school levels offer resources to support implementation.
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From page 99... ...
In the "Engineering is Elementary" curriculum, students build and test models that address problems related to harnessing wind power, filtering water, moving materials in a factory, building a footbridge that spans a stream, and more. In the "Building Math" curriculum, middle school students address problems related to keeping medicine cool in a tropical environment, collecting rainwater in the absence of fresh water, and designing insulated clothing that allows for easy movement.
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From page 100... ...
All of the units end with engineering design problems consistent with the ones presented in the fictional account. "Material World Modules" at the middle school and high school levels follow a similar pattern.
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From page 101... ...
In contrast, stories in the "Models and Designs" unit of the Full Option Science System curriculum are dominated by male inventors, scientists, engineers, and industrialists (e.g., Stephen Hawkings, Dick Covey, Rube Goldberg, Henry Ford, Eli Whitney)
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From page 102... ...
For instance, in the "Design and Discovery" curriculum, engineering concepts and skills are applied to designing paper clips, improving the caps on tubes of toothpaste, and analyzing bicycle systems. "City Technology" introduces engineering principles in conjunction with testing the design and strength of shopping bags, designing packages, making maps, establishing classroom procedures, analyzing pump dispensers, and building shelves.
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From page 103... ...
Nor do states license or certify teachers of engineering the way they do teachers of science, mathematics, technology, and other subjects. Most instructors who teach engineering in middle and high schools have a background in technology education; 6 a smaller number have backgrounds in science education; and an even smaller number have backgrounds in engineering.
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From page 104... ...
has focused on identifying the requirements for preparing technology educators to teach engineering. One small, qualitative study identified about a dozen interrelated factors that are important to preparing teachers to introduce engineering design concepts into the K–12 classroom (Asunda and Hill, 2007)
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to self-paced coaching provided on a DVD included in the curricular materials for "Building Math"(Table 4-2)
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TABLE 4-3 In-Service Professional Development Programs for Teachers of K–12 Engineering 106 Program/ Scope of Number of Curriculum Training Target Audience Training Force Teachers Reached Notes Project Lead the All teachers Middle school and 160 master teachers; 7,200 teachers and Online Virtual Way are required high school teachers, 120 affiliate professors 5,000 guidance Academy provides to complete mostly technology counselors have ongoing support a two-week educators been trained in all summer 50 states institute Engineering is Optional Elementary Professional development 5,100 teachers A memorandum of Elementary training that generalists staff at the Boston Museum in 28 states and understanding between varies from of Science the District of the Boston Museum of two-hour Columbia (as of Science and Valley City workshops June 2009) State University allows to two-week Engineering the Future sessions and to be used in VCSU semester-long online pre-service programs technology teacher education
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From page 107... ...
City Technology Optional Elementary Authors of the curriculum Several thousand training -- a generalists, special (City College of New York) teachers and one-hour education teachers, informal educators introductory elementary science in about 20 states workshop specialists, secondary followed by math and science 30-minute teachers, museum workshops educators, after on particular school program staff, units and parents Children Required: 30- Elementary teachers In Virginia, the training is 1,300 teachers Designing and hour graduate conducted through George since 1999 in six Engineering course Mason University states, the bulk of whom (800)
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elementary teachers curriculum
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Engineering the Half-day, High school teachers A memorandum of Future full-day, and understanding between multiple-day the Boston Museum of sessions in Science and Valley City the Boston State University allows area and 20 Engineering the Future to 40 hour to be used in VCSU moderated online pre-service online technology teacher professional education development course Building Math Training DVD supplied with curriculum materials INSPIRES Two-day Technology teachers workshops in Maryland A World in One-day Elementary, middle, 65,000 kits shipped Teachers must agree to Motion workshop and high school since 1990 (not work with an engineer teachers clear how many who volunteers in the teachers trained) classroom 109
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. As of early 2009, fewer than 10 teachers had graduated from the new PLTW-infused programs (Richard Grimsley, Project Lead the Way, personal communication, January 5, 2009)
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Such students meet New Jersey's certi fication requirements for highly qualified teachers. In addition to primary K–5 certification, M/S/T majors can apply for an endorsement for teach ing middle school mathematics or science, if they have completed 15 credits of coursework in the discipline and have passed the appropriate PRAXIS test.
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. Reportedly, some teachers also are uncomfortable with the open-endedness of engineering design.
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Presented at the National Symposium on Professional Development for Engineering and Technology Education, Dallas, Texas, February 11–13, 2007. Available online at www.conferences.ilstu.edu/NSA/homepage.html (accessed May 23, 2008)
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2005. Are Technology Education Teachers Prepared to Teach Engineering Design and Analytical Methods?
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2008. Pre-Service Professional Development for Middle School and High School Teacher of Engineering.
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Materials in languages other than English further complicated the analysis, and curricular documents were not always available. In many cases, the curriculum content had to be inferred from a review of sample assessment items.
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The design process is evident, consistent with the influence of the design and technology paradigm. In the Israeli programs, the curriculum and sample exam questions focus on the concept of systems; related ideas, such as control, feedback, and parameters, are also treated in some detail.
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From page 118... ...
Exam questions for the ‘Séries de Sciences de l'Ingénieur' describe a technical device that has to meet a given set of requirements, and students are asked to calculate certain variables based on their knowledge of science. In most instances, however, math and science concepts are treated as separate from technological content.
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