Education Commons^™

Effects Of Professional Development On Infusing Engineering Design Into High School Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem) Curricula, Zanj Kano Avery

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of professional development (PD) on the infusion of engineering design into high school curricula. Four inservice teachers with backgrounds in physics, chemistry, industrial education, math, and electrical engineering participated in the 2006 National Center of Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE)-sponsored PD workshops at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) and provided three sources of data that were used to answer the research question, "What are the effects of PD on infusing engineering design into high school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula"?

Three major themes emerged from the data. …

Complex Systems In Engineering And Technology Education: A Mixed Methods Study Investigating The Role Computer Simulations Serve In Student Learning, Douglas J. Walrath

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research was conducted to determine if students receiving complex systems instruction in the form of software simulations recognize patterns and underlying elements of complex systems more effectively than students receiving traditional instruction. Complex systems were investigated with an analytic (reductive) approach in a control group and with a synthesis approach in the treatment group. Exploration of this top-down approach to learning complex systems counters traditional bottom-up methodologies, investigating systems and subsystems at the component level. The hypothesis was that students experiencing complex systems scenarios in a computer-based learning environment would outperform their counterparts by constructing a greater number of …