Education Commons^™

Effect Of An Engineering Camp On Students’ Perceptions Of Engineering And Technology, Rebekah Hammack, Toni A. Ivey, Juliana Utley, Karen A. High

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Students’ knowledge about a profession influences their future decisions about careers. Research indicates that students tend to hold stereotypical views of engineers, which would hinder engineering as a career choice. The purpose of this study was to measure how participating in a week long engineering summer camp affected middle school students’ (N519) attitudes towards engineering and their conceptions of engineering and technology. Results indicate that participation in the programs had a positive impact on the students’ understandings of what technology is and the work engineers do. Although the results indicate a positive impact on participants, it is not clear which …

Teacher Beliefs About Motivating And Teaching Students To Carry Out Engineering Design Challenges: Some Initial Data, James P. Van Haneghan, Susan A. Pruet, Rhonda Neal-Waltman, Jessica M. Harlan

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The present study examines middle school teachers’ beliefs about seven learning outcomes related to a project that involves developing and examining the effects of a set of engineering design modules constructed for use by middle school math and science teachers. Overall, the teachers involved in the intervention appear to believe they have the instructional skills, professional development, and resources to carry out the modules. Teachers from all of the schools (both intervention and comparison schools) for the most part valued the outcomes as important. Results of the study indicate that, although teachers believe they value and can obtain most of …

Math, Science, And Engineering Integration In A High School Engineering Course: A Qualitative Study, Clara G. Valtorta, Leema K. Berland

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Engineering in K-12 classrooms has been receiving expanding emphasis in the United States. The integration of science, mathematics, and engineering is a benefit and goal of K-12 engineering; however, current empirical research on the efficacy of K-12 science, mathematics, and engineering integration is limited. This study adds to this growing field, using discourse analysis techniques to examine whether and why students integrate math and science concepts into their engineering design work. The study focuses on student work during a unit from a high school engineering course. Video data were collected during the unit and were used to identify episodes of …

Driven By Beliefs: Understanding Challenges Physical Science Teachers Face When Integrating Engineering And Physics, Emily A. Dare, Joshua A. Ellis, Gillian H. Roehrig

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

It is difficult to ignore the increased use of technological innovations in today’s world, which has led to various calls for the integration of engineering into K-12 science standards. The need to understand how engineering is currently being brought to science classrooms is apparent and necessary in order to address these calls for integration. This multiphase, mixed-methods study investigated the classroom practices and beliefs of high school physical science teachers following an intensive professional development on physics and engineering integration.

Classroom observations showed that teachers new to incorporating engineering into their physical science classrooms often struggled to maintain focus on …

Design Practices Of Preservice Elementary Teachers In An Integrated Engineering And Literature Experience, Kristen Bethke Wendell

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The incorporation of engineering practices and core ideas into the Next Generation Science Standards at the elementary school level provides exciting opportunities but also raises important questions about the preparation of new elementary teachers. Both the teacher education and engineering education communities have a limited literature base on the resources that novice elementary teachers bring to learning and teaching engineering. The purpose of this descriptive exploratory research study was to characterize the design practices used by preservice elementary teachers during an integrated engineering and literature experience. Using a modification of the Design Activity Coding Scheme (Atman et al., 2007), we …

High And Low Computer Self-Efficacy Groups And Their Learning Behavior From Self-Regulated Learning Perspective While Engaged In Interactive Learning Modules, Harry B. Santoso, Oenardi Lawanto, Kurt Becker, Ning Fang, Edward M. Reeve

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The purpose of this research was to investigate high school students’ computer self-efficacy (CSE) and learning behavior in a selfregulated learning (SRL) framework while utilizing an interactive learning module. The researcher hypothesizes that CSE is reflected on cognitive actions and metacognitive strategies while the students are engaged with interactive learning modules. Two research questions guided this research: (1) how is students’ CSE while engaged in interactive learning modules? and (2) how do high and low CSE groups plan and monitor their cognitive action, and regulate their monitoring strategies based on their CSE level? The research used a mixedmethods approach to …

Gender Differences In The Consistency Of Middle School Students’ Interest In Engineering And Science Careers, Marsha Ing, Pamela R. Aschbacher, Sherry M. Tsai

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This longitudinal study analyzes survey responses in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade from diverse public school students (n = 482) to explore gender differences in engineering and science career preferences. Females were far more likely to express interest in a science career (31%) than an engineering career (13%), while the reverse was true for males (58% in engineering, 39% in science). After controlling for student and school demographic characteristics, females were as consistent as males in their science career interests during the three years of the study but less consistent in their engineering career interests. Knowing an engineer significantly …

Shoot For The Moon! The Mentors And The Middle Schoolers Explore The Intersection Of Design Thinking And Stem, Maureen P. Carroll Ph.D.

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This paper describes the journey of a group of university students as they worked with underserved middle school students as mentors in a STEM-based afterschool program. Design thinking provided a frame within which students learned how to be mentors, how to create user-centered learning experiences, and how to share their experiences as developing STEM professionals with middle school students.