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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Journal Of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-Peer) Annual Report From January 1, 2021, To December 31, 2021, Senay Purzer, Urvi Gupta Dec 2022

Journal Of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-Peer) Annual Report From January 1, 2021, To December 31, 2021, Senay Purzer, Urvi Gupta

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

This annual report includes the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research’s readership metrics and statistics, authorship metrics and trends, and our reflections on 2021. In the last year, the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research started to publish special issues and the editorial team has been working to transform pre-college engineering education.


A Model For Equity-Oriented Prek-12 Engineering, Christine M. Cunningham, Gregory J. Kelly Dec 2022

A Model For Equity-Oriented Prek-12 Engineering, Christine M. Cunningham, Gregory J. Kelly

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

In this paper, we address the societally important issue of developing a more equitable approach to preK-12 engineering education. Our primary emphasis is on K-8 grades—a time when first impressions of engineering may be developed. Calls for increased participation by all students, including those who have been historically marginalized, motivate the need for theoretically grounded ways of developing and assessing educational programs. This paper draws from sociocultural learning theory and applies four theoretical and empirical analyses to derive design principles for equity that can inform curriculum, instruction, and assessment of preK-12 engineering education programs. We present a model for equity-oriented …


Student Engagement In An Online Engineering Afterschool Program During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Virginia Snodgrass Rangel, Jerrod A. Henderson, Chelsea Martinez, Rick Greer Dec 2022

Student Engagement In An Online Engineering Afterschool Program During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Virginia Snodgrass Rangel, Jerrod A. Henderson, Chelsea Martinez, Rick Greer

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

The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of schooling online and limited students’ access to informal learning opportunities such as afterschool programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how fourth- and fifth-grade students engaged in an online engineering program and what factors influenced their engagement. We drew on a four-dimensional model of student engagement to describe how students engaged in the afterschool engineering program and to identify the factors that enhanced or inhibited engagement. Using a case study design, we drew on interviews with six program mentors and ten students and observation data from weekly Zoom sessions throughout the 2020–2021 …


Print3d, A Service-Learning Project For Improving Visually Impaired Accessibility Through Educational 3d Printing, Oscar R. Lozano Nov 2022

Print3d, A Service-Learning Project For Improving Visually Impaired Accessibility Through Educational 3d Printing, Oscar R. Lozano

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

Well-executed service-learning projects are a high-value educational element. However, these projects commonly focus on overused topics and unbalanced executions which can produce the opposite effect to that desired when working with groups of people with functional diversity. PRINT3D is a service-learning project aimed at improving accessibility for people with visual disabilities while helping primary and secondary school students learn basic engineering skills through 3D design and printing. Under the support of the European Erasmus+ Programme, this project brought together nongovernmental organizations, teacher professional development centers, business enterprises, and educational centers to collaborate for two school years. The project activities aimed …


Middle School Engineering Teachers’ Enactments Of Pedagogies Rooted In Funds Of Knowledge And Translanguaging, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Jorge Acosta-Feliz Sep 2022

Middle School Engineering Teachers’ Enactments Of Pedagogies Rooted In Funds Of Knowledge And Translanguaging, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Jorge Acosta-Feliz

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

Multilingual students should have opportunities to learn and do engineering in learning environments that foreground and sustain their cultural and linguistic practices. However, little is known about how middle school engineering teachers enact these environments. To address this gap in research and practice, this comparative case study describes the different ways in which two middle school technology and engineering teachers enacted pedagogies rooted in funds of knowledge and translanguaging. The teachers and research team engaged in a professional learning community, which focused on funds of knowledge and language-based pedagogies, for over one year. The teachers enacted pedagogies that incorporated principles …


A Narrative Investigation Of Black Familial Capital That Supports Engineering Engagement Of Middle-School-Aged Youth, Delean Tolbert Smith, Tamecia Jones, Monica E. Cardella Jun 2022

A Narrative Investigation Of Black Familial Capital That Supports Engineering Engagement Of Middle-School-Aged Youth, Delean Tolbert Smith, Tamecia Jones, Monica E. Cardella

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

A major concern in engineering education involves ensuring that youth belonging to minoritized groups have equitable access to engineering career pathways. Related research often highlights the effect of student and school characteristics on engineering success but few studies have investigated the engineering-related assets that Black families provide. This work aims to provide counterstories that highlight the presence of Black families along the pre-college engineering pathways of three Black youth from the Midwest region of the United States. The application of a counternarrative approach centers the familial capital of Black families and serves as the analytical frame for this work. The …


Inventing The Baby Saver: An Activity Systems Analysis Of Applied Engineering At The High School Level, Jessica Gale Mar 2022

Inventing The Baby Saver: An Activity Systems Analysis Of Applied Engineering At The High School Level, Jessica Gale

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

Extant research and engineering education frameworks call for students to engage in personally meaningful engineering projects; however, there are few case studies documenting the work of young engineers working to design solutions to real-world problems that matter to them. This qualitative case study describes the work of a purposively selected group of high school engineering students (the InvenTeam) (n = 15) as they devote a school year to a particularly ambitious invention project: designing and prototyping a device to mitigate deaths occurring when children are left unattended in hot cars. Utilizing cultural historical activity theory as a theoretical and …


Observing Empathy In Informal Engineering Activities With Girls Ages 7–14, Susan M. Letourneau, Dorothy T. Bennett, Changchia Liu, Yessenia Argudo, Kylie Peppler, Anna Keune, Maggie Dahn, Katherine Mcmillan Culp Feb 2022

Observing Empathy In Informal Engineering Activities With Girls Ages 7–14, Susan M. Letourneau, Dorothy T. Bennett, Changchia Liu, Yessenia Argudo, Kylie Peppler, Anna Keune, Maggie Dahn, Katherine Mcmillan Culp

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

Empathy is a critical part of the engineering design process. It allows engineers to more deeply understand their clients’ perspectives and design solutions that meet the needs of diverse stakeholders. Studies also show that reframing engineering education to prioritize empathy for others can counteract stereotypes of engineering as impersonal and invite a wider range of identities into the field. This approach can help to address persistent gender disparities in engineering, which reflect a need for engineering education to increase its efforts to include girls’ perspectives. Informal learning environments have developed strategies for framing engineering problems in human-centered ways, but more …