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1. Less is More: Balancing Tradeoffs in an Engineering Activity During a Teacher Workshop

   Johnson, Matthew M. ; Gil, Minyoung ( January 2022 , ISLS Annual Conference)

   Despite the recent emphasis on the importance of K-12 students engaging in engineering content and practices, there has been little research done about how teachers learn engineering practices through teacher workshops and even less on how they utilize those experiences to teach engineering in their classes. Using methods of interactional ethnography, we analyzed data from an online teacher workshop in which elementary teachers engineered solutions to a multi-criteria problem in which balancing tradeoffs was a key practice. We found that teachers tended to focus on one criterion rather than both and lacked strategies to consider balancing these tradeoffs. We also found that a second iteration afforded all groups to demonstrate learning through improvement. Implications are discussed related to the importance of a focus on balancing tradeoffs in teacher learning and on pedagogy of engineering projects. 

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2. Home-based Cantilever Beam Experiment for Civil Engineering Undergraduate Students

   Ikiriko, S. ( July 2021 , 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access)

   null (Ed.)

   There is a growing concern in STEM fields during the ongoing pandemic about how students will be able to achieve one of the major learning outcomes; an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering/scientific judgement to draw conclusions. Experimental Centric Pedagogy (ECP) has been shown to promote motivation and achievement in electrical engineering among black students and students in general. This paper focuses on the development of a hands-on laboratory experiment for undergraduate students in the department of civil engineering using Mobile Hands-On Studio Technology to improve experiential learning. The home-based experiment focuses on the measurement of beam stresses resulting from weights applied to the free-end of the beam while being fixed at the other end. The beam is made up of an acrylic material and has dimensions of 1500 mm in length, 40 mm in width, and 3.175 mm in thickness. Data acquisition from strain gauges installed on the beams was made possible using ALICE Voltmeter which displays voltage readings upon beam displacement. The stress readings are then calibrated and transformed to strains based on hooke’s law relationship. Findings indicate good understanding of concepts, motivation and students learning experiences through teamwork and collaborative activities. and achievement of stated learning outcome. 

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3. “I Understand Their Frustrations a Little Bit Better”: Elementary Teachers’ Affective Stances in Engineering in an Online Learning Program

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--33969  

   Portsmore, Merredith ; Watkins, Jessica ; Swanson, Rebecca ( January 2020 , ASEE annual conference)

   As K-12 engineering education becomes more ubiquitous in the U.S, increased attention has been paid to preparing the heterogeneous group of in-service teachers who have taken on the challenge of teaching engineering. Standards have emerged for professional development along with research on teacher learning in engineering that call for teachers to facilitate and support engineering learning environments. Given that many teachers may not have experienced engineering practice calls have been made to engage teaches K-12 teachers in the “doing” of engineering as part of their preparation. However, there is a need for research studying more specific nature of the “doing” and the instructional implications for engaging teachers in “doing” engineering. In general, to date, limited time and constrained resources necessitate that many professional development programs for K-12 teachers to engage participants in the same engineering activities they will enact with their students. While this approach supports teachers’ familiarity with curriculum and ability to anticipate students’ ideas, there is reason to believe that these experiences may not be authentic enough to support teachers in developing a rich understanding of the “doing” of engineering. K-12 teachers are often familiar with the materials and curricular solutions, given their experiences as adults, which means that engaging in the same tasks as their students may not be challenging enough to develop their understandings about engineering. This can then be consequential for their pedagogy: In our prior work, we found that teachers’ linear conceptions of the engineering design process can limit them from recognizing and supporting student engagement in productive design practices. Research on the development of engineering design practices with adults in undergraduate and professional engineering settings has shown significant differences in how adults approach and understand problems. Therefore, we conjectured that engaging teachers in more rigorous engineering challenges designed for adult engineering novices would more readily support their developing rich understandings of the ways in which professional engineers move through the design process. We term this approach meaningful engineering for teachers, and it is informed by work in science education that highlights the importance of learning environments creating a need for learners to develop and engage in disciplinary practices. We explored this approach to teachers’ professional learning experiences in doing engineering in an online graduate program for in-service teachers in engineering education at Tufts University entitled the Teacher Engineering Education Program (teep.tufts.edu). In this exploratory study, we asked: 1. How did teachers respond to engaging in meaningful engineering for teachers in the TEEP program? 2. What did teachers identify as important things they learned about engineering content and pedagogy? This paper focuses on one theme that emerged from teachers’ reflections. Our analysis found that teachers reported that meaningful engineering supported their development of epistemic empathy (“the act of understanding and appreciating someone's cognitive and emotional experience within an epistemic activity”) as a result of their own affective experiences in doing engineering that required significant iteration as well as using novel robotic materials. We consider how epistemic empathy may be an important aspect of teacher learning in K-12 engineering education and the potential implications for designing engineering teacher education. 

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4. Lessons Learned from Two Teacher Educators: What COVID-19 Can Teach Us About Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers to Teach the Next Generation of Students

   Lee, M. J. ( January 2022 , Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   Langran, E. (Ed.)

   Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has required teacher educators to teach their classes online. Teacher educators now need to reflect on the learning opportunities that the COVID-19 induced shift to online learning has provided. This study shares two teacher educators’ experiences of teaching and supporting preservice teachers (PSTs) as they taught engineering online to elementary students. The two teacher educators noticed (a) positive changes in PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs about technology integration, (b) PSTs’ tendency to select and use of educational technologies, (c) PSTs’ recognition of the importance of online interaction and feedback from K-12 students, (d) the importance of providing PSTs with extended access to physical hardware, and (e) the importance of providing developmentally appropriate digital resources. The paper concludes with suggestions for teacher educators who are preparing PSTs for the next generation of teaching. 

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5. Mobile Learning in STEM: A Case Study in an Undergraduate Engineering Course

   Pakala, K. ; Bakic, M. ; Bairaktarova, D. ; Bose, D. ( June 2023 , 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Student-centered educational system is needed for better educational outcomes. Technology enabled pedagogy has helped immensely during the pandemic times when rapid transition to remote learning was essential. This poster reports findings on year one of a two-year research study to utilize mobile technologies and a technology-enhanced curriculum to improve student engagement and learning in STEM undergraduate courses. This poster describes a quasi-experimental mixed methods study on implementing mobile devices (iPad and Pencil) and a technology-enhanced curriculum in an undergraduate thermal-fluids engineering course, a foundational engineering class. The technology-enabled curriculum was fully integrated in the thermal-fluids course to deliver content and to facilitate student engagement with the content, instructor, and fellow students. This approach leveraged the social-constructivist learning theory - a connected community of learners with classroom peers and co-construction of knowledge where the instructor’s role is that of a subject matter expert who facilitates learning. To examine the impact of mobile devices on student learning, in this two-year study (year one fall 2021 - spring 2022), the following research questions were addressed, hypothesizing improvements in the areas of engagement, enhancement of learning outcomes, and extension of learning to real-life engineering scenarios: (1) Does mobile device use facilitate engagement in thermal-fluid science course content? (Engagement), (2) Does mobile device use increase learning of identified difficult concepts in thermal-fluid science courses as indicated by increased achievement scores? (Enhancement) and (3) What are student perceptions of using mobile devices for solving real-life problems? This poster will provide an overview of the research plan and describe some preliminary research efforts based on year 1 of the project efforts. This work is supported by the NSF: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF). 

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