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1. Integrating Technology in the Classroom to Engage Students

   Aji, C. A. (January 2019, 2019 ASEE 126th National Confere)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper will share the design of a learning environment that uses flight simulator-based activities designed to cognitively engage middle school students. The flight simulator provides an exciting, realistic, and engaging learning experience. It allows students to recognize the linkage between the concepts and application in real-world. Lesson plans were developed for several math and physics concepts integrating the flight simulator activities. To ensure buy-in for classroom implementation, the topics of these lessons were identified in consultation with the local middle school STEM teachers. Professional development on using the pedagogical approach was then provided to teachers from the middle schools that serve primarily underrepresented populations. Middle school students experienced the learning environment as part of a summer camp to deeply understand some science and math concepts. A quasi experimental between-subjects research design was used. Pre-post content and attitude instruments were utilized to collect data for determining the effectiveness of the approach. This paper provides an updated analysis (N = 50) combining the previously reported data from the 2017 camp and the implementation results of the summer 2018 camp. Results indicated statistically significant gains in students’ content knowledge and positive changes in attitudes of mainly female students towards science, technology, engineering and math. 

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2. What do Undergraduate Engineering Students and Pre-service Teachers Learn by Collaborating and Teaching Engineering and Coding Through Robotics?

   Kidd, J.; Kaipa, K.; Sacks, S.; Ringleb, S.; Pazos, P.; Gutierrez, K.; Ayala, O. M.; de Souza Almeida, L. M. (June 2020, 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Online)

   This research paper presents preliminary results of an NSF-supported interdisciplinary collaboration between undergraduate engineering students and preservice teachers. The fields of engineering and elementary education share similar challenges when it comes to preparing undergraduate students for the new demands they will encounter in their profession. Engineering students need interprofessional skills that will help them value and negotiate the contributions of various disciplines while working on problems that require a multidisciplinary approach. Increasingly, the solutions to today's complex problems must integrate knowledge and practices from multiple disciplines and engineers must be able to recognize when expertise from outside their field can enhance their perspective and ability to develop innovative solutions. However, research suggests that it is challenging even for professional engineers to understand the roles, responsibilities, and integration of various disciplines, and engineering curricula have traditionally left little room for development of non-technical skills such as effective communication with a range of audiences and an ability to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams. Meanwhile, preservice teachers need new technical knowledge and skills that go beyond traditional core content knowledge, as they are now expected to embed engineering into science and coding concepts into traditional subject areas. There are nationwide calls to integrate engineering and coding into PreK-6 education as part of a larger campaign to attract more students to STEM disciplines and to increase exposure for girls and minority students who remain significantly underrepresented in engineering and computer science. Accordingly, schools need teachers who have not only the knowledge and skills to integrate these topics into mainstream subjects, but also the intention to do so. However, research suggests that preservice teachers do not feel academically prepared and confident enough to teach engineering-related topics. This interdisciplinary project provided engineering students with an opportunity to develop interprofessional skills as well as to reinforce their technical knowledge, while preservice teachers had the opportunity to be exposed to engineering content, more specifically coding, and develop competence for their future teaching careers. Undergraduate engineering students enrolled in a computational methods course and preservice teachers enrolled in an educational technology course partnered to plan and deliver robotics lessons to fifth and sixth graders. This paper reports on the effects of this collaboration on twenty engineering students and eight preservice teachers. T-tests were used to compare participants’ pre-/post- scores on a coding quiz. A post-lesson written reflection asked the undergraduate students to describe their robotics lessons and what they learned from interacting with their cross disciplinary peers and the fifth/sixth graders. Content analysis was used to identify emergent themes. Engineering students’ perceptions were generally positive, recounting enjoyment interacting with elementary students and gaining communication skills from collaborating with non-technical partners. Preservice teachers demonstrated gains in their technical knowledge as measured by the coding quiz, but reported lacking the confidence to teach coding and robotics independently of their partner engineering students. Both groups reported gaining new perspectives from working in interdisciplinary teams and seeing benefits for the fifth and sixth grade participants, including exposing girls and students of color to engineering and computing. 

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3. American Indian Storytelling with Alice

   Fasy, Brittany; Hancock, Stacey; Micka, Sam; Theobold, Allison; Madubuko, Jachike (February 2018, SIGCSE Poster Session)

   Research suggests that introducing students to computational concepts at a young age improves the likelihood that they will become interested in computer science later on in life (Super, 1953). As such, it is becoming increasingly important to develop lessons for K-12 students that include computational thinking (Barr, 2011). The storytelling project at Montana State University integrates computational thinking skills into the Indian Education for All (IEFA) curriculum for middle school students in Montana. 1. Identify an object not in Alice and needed for a lesson. 2. Develop rough draft and provide to the model developer. 3. Develop model in 3Ds max. 4. Add model to world, and add methods as needed. References Plateau Indian Beaded Bags 5. Gather feedback from students and instructors. Barr, V., & Stephenson, C. (2011). Bringing computational thinking to K-12: what is Involved and what is the role of the computer science education community? Acm Inroads, 2(1), 48-54. Cooper, J. (n.d.). Plateau beaded bag, ca. 1930 [Photograph found in Fred Mitchell, Montana Historical Society, Helena]. Retrieved from http://mhs.mt.gov/ Portals/11/education/ABeautifulTradition/tradition%20design%20color% 20brochure.pdf Super, D. E. (1953). A theory of vocational development. American Psychologist, 8(5), 185-190. We work to develop lesson plans, plan outreach events, and find relevant literature to satisfy the content standard requirements as well as the essential understandings associated with IEFA. Furthermore, we strive to integrate basic computer science concepts into these lessons to help pique student interest in programming and computational thinking. This is done using the Alice software, a drag-and-drop programming environment that allows students to use computational thinking in a beginner-friendly interface to create animations. 

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4. Utilization of Remote Access Electron Microscopes to Enhance Technology Education and Foster STEM Interest in Preteen Students

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-020-09964-4  

   Wolf, Vanessa; Hsiao, Valerie; Rodriguez, Brandon; Min, Ashley; Mayorga, Jill; Ashcroft, Jared (November 2020, Research in Science Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Remote access technology in STEM education fills dual roles as an educational tool to deliver science education (Educational Technology) and as a means to teach about technology itself (Technology Education). A five-lesson sequence was introduced to 11 and 12-year-old students at an urban school. The lesson sequences were inquiry-based, hands-on, and utilized active learning pedagogies, which have been implemented in STEM classrooms worldwide. Each lesson employed a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) accessed remotely. Students were assessed using multiple-choice questions to ascertain (1) technology education learning gains: did students gain an understanding of how electron microscopes work? and (2) educational technology learning gains: did students gain a better understanding of lesson content through use of the electron microscope? Likert-item surveys were developed, distributed, and analyzed to established how remote access technology affected student attitudes toward science, college, and technology. Participating students had a positive increase in attitudes toward scientific technology by engaging in the lesson sequences, reported positive attitudes toward remote access experiences, and exhibited learning gains in the science behind the SEM technology they accessed remotely. These findings suggest that remote experiences are a strong form of technology education, but also that future research could explore ways to strengthen remote access as an educational technology (a tool to deliver lesson content), such as one-on-one engagement. This study promotes future research into inquiry-based, hands-on, integrated lessons approach that utilize educational technology learning through remote instruments as a pedagogy to increase students’ engagement with and learning of the T in STEM. 

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5. Introducing Coding into Teacher Education: An Interdisciplinary Robotics Experience for Education and Engineering Students

   Kidd, J.; Kaipa, K.; Sacks, S.; de Souza Almeida, L. M. (April 2020, Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   Despite nationwide mandates to integrate computer science into P-6 curriculum, most P-6 preservice teachers (PSTs) are not exposed to coding or computational thinking during their professional preparation, and are unprepared to teach these topics. This study, conducted as a part of an NSF-funded project, explores a teacher preparation model designed to increase PSTs’ coding knowledge and coding self-efficacy. PSTs in an educational technology course partnered with engineering undergraduates (EUs) in a computational methods course and worked side-by-side on robotics activities to develop skill and confidence with basic programming concepts and block coding. Students utilized experience gained from these interdisciplinary partnerships to lead robotics activities with fifth and sixth grade students (FSGs) in an after-school technology club. Findings from quantitative studies suggest that the implementation of the approach resulted in a significant increase in both PSTs’ coding knowledge and coding self-efficacy. Qualitative studies revealed that most PSTs’ and EUs’ perceived value of the project was positive. 

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