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Two project-based learning approaches were implemented in a 100-level information literacy class in the Mechanical Engineering program at a mid-Atlantic university. One approach, the treatment group, partnered engineering students with education students to develop and deliver engineering lessons that guide elementary school students through the engineering design process. In the second approach, the comparison group, engineering students were partnered with their engineering classmates to work on an engineering problem using the engineering design process. The two projects were designed to have similar durations and course point values. For both projects, teams were formed, and peer evaluations were completed, using the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) survey. This study examined how the two project-based learning approaches affected students' teamwork effectiveness. Data was collected from undergraduate engineering students assigned to groups in the comparison and treatment conditions from Fall 2019 to Fall 2022. Data was collected electronically through the CATME teammate evaluations and project reflections (treatment, n = 137; comparison, n = 112). CATME uses a series of questions assessed on a 5-point Likert scale. Quantitative analysis using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Covariance (ANCOVA) showed that engineering students in the treatment group expected more quality, were more satisfied, and had more task commitment than engineering students working within their discipline. However, no statistically significant differences were observed for teamwork effectiveness categories such as contribution to the team’s work, interaction with teammates, keeping the team on track, and having relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities. This result suggests that engineering students who worked in interdisciplinary teams with an authentic audience (i.e., children) perceived higher quality in their projects and had higher levels of commitment to the task than their peers in the comparison group. A thematic analysis of the written reflections was conducted to further explain the results obtained for the three categories: expecting quality, satisfaction, and task commitment. The thematic analysis revealed that the treatment, or interdisciplinary, groups exhibited considerably more positive reflections than their comparison peers regarding the project in all three categories, supporting results obtained quantitatively. 

Seventy-three students who enrolled in a senior-year level fluid mechanics course during spring semesters from 2019-2022 were asked about their perceptions on the impact in their professional preparation of a semester-long multidisciplinary service-learning assignment. This paper evaluates their current perceived impact of the assignment (long-term impact) and whether it might have changed from when they took the course (short-term impact). A survey was sent to all former students who went through the course and participated in the assignment, with a 61.64% return rate. The survey included questions about how well they remembered the assignment (some of the students were involved in it 4 years prior to completing this survey), the relevance of the project in terms of their professional preparation, how it impacted their collaboration skills, and whether their involvement affected their interest in participating in engineering outreach activities. To determine how their perceived impact of the project on their professional preparation has changed from when they took the class to now when they are working professionals, we compare their recent responses to the responses in reflections they completed while taking the course. The information gathered in the survey also provides a means to evaluate the effectiveness of the project and identify areas for improvement, which has implications for how similar projects might be designed and enacted in the future. 

Engineering is becoming increasingly cross-disciplinary, requiring students to develop skills in multiple engineering disciplines (e.g., mechanical engineering students having to learn the basics of electronics, instrumentation, and coding) and interprofessional skills to integrate perspectives from people outside their field. In the workplace, engineering teams are frequently multidisciplinary, and often, people from outside of engineering are part of the team that brings a product to market. Additionally, teams are often diverse in age, race, gender, and in other areas. Teams that creatively utilize the contrasting perspectives and ideas arising from these differences can positively affect team performance and generate solutions effective for a broader range of users. These trends suggest that engineering education can benefit from having engineering students work on team projects that involve a blend of cross-disciplinary and mixed-aged collaborations. An NSF-funded project set out to explore this idea by partnering undergraduate engineering students enrolled in a 300-level electromechanical systems course with preservice teachers enrolled in a 400-level educational technology course to plan and deliver robotics lessons to fifth graders at a local school. Working in small teams, students designed, built, and coded bio-inspired robots. The collaborative activities included: (1) training with Hummingbird Bit hardware (Birdbrain Technologies, Pittsburgh, PA) (e.g. sensors, servo motors) and coding platform, (2) preparing robotics lessons for fifth graders that explained the engineering design process, and (3) guiding the fifth graders in the design of their robots. Additionally, each engineering student designed a robot following the theme developed with their education student and fifth-grade partners. 

Preservice teachers (PSTs) in an educational foundations course were tasked with leading elementary students in an engineering design challenge. To explore different approaches for helping the PSTs develop competence in engineering education, two implementation methods were tested. In Spring 2022, PSTs collaborated with undergraduate engineering students to develop carnival-themed design challenge lessons. In Fall 2022, PSTs worked with their PST classmates to teach a professionally prepared engineering lesson focused on designing plastic filters. PSTs’ knowledge of engineering and engineering pedagogy were compared across the two semesters using an exploratory approach. Both groups showed increases in engineering knowledge and engineering pedagogical knowledge. Item-level differences suggest unique benefits to each approach providing insight for teacher educators designing interventions to prepare PSTs to integrate engineering into elementary education. 

National and many state standards require elementary teachers to teach engineering in their classrooms. However, incorporating engineering into elementary engineering classrooms has not been a standard practice, thus emphasizing the need for teachers to be provided with training, resources, and support for the vision of instruction described in the standards to become a reality. Administrators are responsible for making decisions regarding teacher training and support. In response, we explored the perceptions of division and building-level administrators throughout Virginia regarding the current state of elementary engineering education and what they perceive as barriers to their teachers engaging students in lessons that incorporate engineering practices. Our data comes from 11 questions from a multiple-choice and open-ended response survey, which was analyzed using a mixed-method approach. Findings describe incoherence between what administrators perceive as the current state of engineering education, the barriers to teachers engaging their students in engineering, and what supports are being provided to teachers. These findings have implications for professional development design and implementation. 

When schools and universities across the world transitioned online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed+gineering, a National Science Foundation (NSF) project that partners engineering and education undergraduates to design and deliver engineering lessons to elementary students, also had to shift its hands-on lessons to a virtual format. Through the lens of social cognitive theory (SCT), this study investigates engineering and education students’ experiences during the shift to online instruction to understand how they perceived its influence on their learning. As a result of modifying their lessons for online delivery, students reported learning professional skills, including skills for teaching online and educational technology skills, as well as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) content. Some also lamented missed learning opportunities, like practice presenting face-to-face. Students’ affective responses were often associated with preparing and delivering their lessons. SCT sheds light on how the mid-semester change in their environment, caused by the shift in designing and teaching from face-to-face to online, affected the undergraduate engineering and education students’ personal experiences and affect. Overall, the transition to fully online was effective for students’ perceived learning and teaching of engineering. Though students experienced many challenges developing multimedia content for delivering hands-on lessons online, they reported learning new skills and knowledge and expressed positive affective responses. From the gains reported by undergraduates, we believe that this cross-disciplinary virtual team assignment was a successful strategy for helping undergraduates build competencies in virtual skills. We posit that similar assignment structures and opportunities post-pandemic will also continue to prepare future students for the post-pandemic workplace.

 

This article outlines the key components of the River’s Edge Construction lesson plan. An explanation of how the lesson was delivered is presented alongside suggestions for implementation by K–6 teachers. The integration of scientific literacy is discussed first, followed by a discussion of each of the 5Es (Bybee et al. 2006). A timeframe for distributing the lesson phases is given; however, the activities included in this plan (see Supplementary Resources for specific lesson materials), should be modified to meet the needs and interest of students, and to align with allotted instructional time and objectives. 

This article outlines the key components of the River’s Edge Construction lesson plan. An explanation of how the lesson was delivered is presented alongside suggestions for implementation by K–6 teachers. The integration of scientific literacy is discussed first, followed by a discussion of each of the 5Es (Bybee et al. 2006). A timeframe for distributing the lesson phases is given; however, the activities included in this plan (see Supplementary Resources for specific lesson materials), should be modified to meet the needs and interest of students, and to align with allotted instructional time and objectives. 

Over the course of several semesters, two different project-based learning approaches were used in two undergraduate engineering courses–a 100-level introductory course that covered a general education requirement on information literacy and a 300-level fluid mechanics course. One project (treatment) was an interdisciplinary service-learning project, implemented with undergraduate engineering and education students who collaborated to develop and deliver engineering lessons to fourth and fifth-grade students in a field trip model. The other projects (comparison) involved a team-based design project contained within each class. In the 100-level course, students selected their project based on personal interests and followed the engineering design process to develop, test, and redesign a prototype. In the fluid mechanics class, students designed a pumped pipeline system for a hypothetical plant. This study aimed to determine whether participating in the interdisciplinary project affected students’ evaluation of their own and their teammates’ teamwork effectiveness skills, measured using the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME). The five dimensions of CATME measured in this study are (1) contribution to the team’s work, (2) interacting with teammates, (3) keeping the team on track, (4) expecting quality, and (5) having relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). The quantitative data from CATME were analyzed using ANCOVA. Furthermore, since data were collected over three semesters and coincided with the pre, during, and post-phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was possible to examine the effects of the evolving classroom constraints over the course of the pandemic on the teamwork effectiveness skills of both the treatment and comparison classes. 

A multidisciplinary service-learning project that involved teaching engineering to fourth and fifth graders was implemented in three sets of engineering and education classes to determine if there was an impact on engineering knowledge and teamwork skills in both the engineering and education students as well as persistence in the engineering students. Collaboration 1 paired a 100-level engineering Information Literacy class in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a 300-level Educational Foundation class. Collaboration 2 combined a 300-level Electromechanical Systems class in Mechanical Engineering with a 400-level Educational Technology class. Collaboration 3 paired a 300-level Fluid Mechanics class in Mechanical Engineering Technology with a 400-level Elementary Science Methods class. Collaborations 1 and 3 interacted with fourth or fifth graders by developing and delivering lessons to the elementary students. Students in collaboration 2 worked with fifth graders in an after-school technology club. While each collaboration had its unique elements, all collaborations included the engineering design process both in classroom instruction and during the service learning project. Quantitative data were collected from both engineering and education students in a pretest/posttest design. Teamwork skills were measured in engineering students using a validated teamwork skills assessment based on peer evaluation. Each class had a comparison class taught by the same instructor that included a team project, and the same quantitative measures. Engineering students who participated in collaboration 1 were evaluated for retention, which was defined as students who were still enrolled in the college of engineering and technology two semesters after completion of the course. Engineering students also completed an evaluation of academic and professional persistence. For the engineering students, none of the assessments involving technical skills had significant differences, although the design process knowledge tests trended upward in the treatment classes. The preservice teachers in the treatment group scored significantly higher in the design process knowledge test, and preservice teachers in collaborations 1 and 3 had higher scores in the engineering knowledge test than the comparison group. Teamwork skills in the treatment group were significantly higher than in the comparison group for both engineering and education students. Thus, engineering and education students in the treatment groups saw gains in teamwork skills, while education students saw more gains in engineering knowledge. Finally, all engineering students had significantly higher professional persistence.