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

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Articles 91 - 95 of 95

Full-Text Articles in Engineering Education

Examining Young Students’ Problem Scoping In Engineering Design, Jessica Watkins, Kathleen Spencer, David Hammer May 2014

Examining Young Students’ Problem Scoping In Engineering Design, Jessica Watkins, Kathleen Spencer, David Hammer

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

Problem scoping—determining the nature and boundaries of a problem—is an essential aspect of the engineering design process. Some studies from engineering education suggest that beginning students tend to skip problem scoping or oversimplify a problem. However, the ways these studies often characterize students’ problem scoping often do not reflect the complexity found in experts’ designing and rely on the number of criteria a student mentions or the time spent problem scoping. In this paper, we argue for methodological approaches that take into account not just what students name as criteria, but also how they weigh, balance, and choose between criteria …


High School Student Information Access And Engineering Design Performance, Nathan Mentzer May 2014

High School Student Information Access And Engineering Design Performance, Nathan Mentzer

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

Developing solutions to engineering design problems requires access to information. Research has shown that appropriately accessing and using information in the design process improves solution quality. This quasi-experimental study provides two groups of high school students with a design problem in a three hour design experience. One group has access to the internet while the other does not. Quality of design solution was measured and the two groups were compared. Solution quality did not change significantly. Student information requests were categorized and the most commonly requested piece of information related to cost of materials. Students spent substantially more time in …


A Framework For Quality K-12 Engineering Education: Research And Development, Tamara J. Moore, Aran W. Glancy, Kristina M. Tank, Jennifer A. Kersten, Karl A. Smith, Micah S. Stohlmann May 2014

A Framework For Quality K-12 Engineering Education: Research And Development, Tamara J. Moore, Aran W. Glancy, Kristina M. Tank, Jennifer A. Kersten, Karl A. Smith, Micah S. Stohlmann

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

Recent U.S. national documents have laid the foundation for highlighting the connection between science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the K-12 level. However, there is not a clear definition or a well-established tradition of what constitutes a quality engineering education at the K-12 level. The purpose of the current work has been the development of a framework for describing what constitutes a quality K-12 engineering education. The framework presented in this paper is the result of a research project focused on understanding and identifying the ways in which teachers and schools implement engineering and engineering design in their classrooms. The …


The Humanistic Side Of Engineering: Considering Social Science And Humanities Dimensions Of Engineering In Education And Research, Morgan Hynes, Jessica Swenson Oct 2013

The Humanistic Side Of Engineering: Considering Social Science And Humanities Dimensions Of Engineering In Education And Research, Morgan Hynes, Jessica Swenson

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

Mathematics and science knowledge/skills are most commonly associated with engineering’s pre-requisite knowledge. Our goals in this paper are to argue for a more systematic inclusion of social science and humanities knowledge in the introduction of engineering to K-12 students. As part of this argument, we present a construct for framing the humanistic side of engineering with illustrative examples of what appealing to the humanistic side of engineering can look like in a classroom setting, and opportunities for research that examines the dynamics the humanistic side of engineering introduces into engineering learning and teaching. The illustrative examples are drawn from interactions …


Secondary Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Engineering As A Field, Devlin B. Montfort, Shane Brown, Victoria Whritenour Oct 2013

Secondary Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Engineering As A Field, Devlin B. Montfort, Shane Brown, Victoria Whritenour

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

Researchers have long been interested in how to recruit and retain more and more diverse students into engineering programs. One consistent challenge in this research is understanding the impacts of interventions from the point of view of the student, and how their preconceptions may influence that effectiveness. This study investigated how secondary students understand the concept of engineering, including what engineering is and what engineers do. The purpose of this work was to describe students’ conceptions of engineering, and to determine how those perceptions relate to student interest in engineering careers. The investigation was founded on the theoretical framework of …