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Every country needs a national STEM teacher corpsThe US National Science Foundation has initiated the National STEM Teacher Corps program to support STEM teachers. Nancy Butler Songer, Associate Provost of STEM Education, discusses her efforts to assist primary school teachers in guiding young children to create solutions for local environmental issues. In many countries, we are challenged by a shortage of well-trained and well-supported teachers. In a 2021 study, more than half (54%) of American teachers surveyed reported their likelihood of leaving the teaching field was somewhat likely or very likely. While American policy documents such as the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) propose that students learn science and engineering through investigations and design, many classroom teachers lack professional development, time, supportive environments, and resources to champion students’ problem-solving, leading to solutions to local environmental problems. 

STEM programs: encouraging an early start with engineering designNancy Butler Songer, Associate Provost of STEM Education at the University of Utah, highlights the importance of introducing STEM programs to younger students. Fifty years ago, I was one of three girls (of fifty 11 and 12-year-olds) in the after-school Science Club (Figure 1). Equipped with my bicycle and a large butterfly net, my task was to gather and identify fifty different species of insects before school began again in the fall. Little did I know that this activity was a formative experience leading to a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education. My experience as a twelve-year-old is consistent with a wealth of research indicating that pre-teen interest in STEM fields, including Engineering, is a strong predictor of future careers. Research studies indicate that to increase the number of students pursuing engineering and science as a career goal, we must increase activities with engineering as a fundamental component before students reach their teenage years (Sneider & Ravel, 2021). 

Youth as essential problem-solvers of our futuresNancy Butler Songer, Associate Provost of STEM Education at the University of Utah, discusses the importance of supporting and including young people as part of environmental decision-making teams and key problem-solvers of our futures. The New York Times calls the environmental threat of the Great Salt Lake in the United States an “Environmental Nuclear Bomb.” Even as water levels continue to decline (e.g., the 2022 average lake level was the lowest on record; Great Salt Lake Strike Team, 2023), regional population and water consumption continue to grow. The result is not only a dying off of the lake’s brine shrimp that support a stable ecosystem but the development of poisonous dust plumes that threaten human health. 

Inspiring STEM education focused on solutionsNancy Butler Songer, from the University of Utah, makes a call for collective action to create a new curriculum focused on the design of solutions. June 5, 2023, marked The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) fiftieth anniversary of World Environment Day, the largest global platform for environmental public outreach. Hosted by Côte D’Ivoire, this year’s celebration emphasized a need for collective action and policy to realize known solutions, such as the sustainable design of products and materials to reduce how much plastic waste flows into aquatic ecosystems. World Environment Day helps us to recognize that to address many current environmental, educational, health, and economic challenges that have foundations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, we cannot rely on individuals or even experts within one area of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or education. We must innovate with, study, and empower students, teachers, community members, and university and industry partners toward collective action. 

Unfortunately, most of the world is experiencing a shortage of employees for careers related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Few students express interest in pursuing these fields, indicating that this shortage has no clear end. Thus, researchers and educators are grappling with ways to increase student interest in STEM fields. One suggestion is to include four critical curricular design features: (1) providing choice or autonomy in learning, (2) promoting personal relevance, (3) presenting appropriately challenging material, and (4) situating the investigations in socially and culturally appropriate contexts. In this mixed-methods study, we explore whether students recognize the incorporation of these curricular design features within a given curriculum and in what ways. 

We explore the critical need for STEM education to integrate science and engineering. This eBook highlights real-world projects and eight essential features to empower students to tackle complex challenges and become innovative problem-solvers. 

While our world consistently presents complicated, interdisciplinary problems with STEM foundations, most pre-university curricula do not encourage drawing on multidisciplinary knowledge in the sciences and engineering to create solutions. We developed an instructional approach, Iterative Science and Engineering (ISE), that cycles through scientific investigation and engineering design and culminates in constructing a solution to a local environmental challenge. Next, we created, revised, and evaluated a six-week ISE curricular program, Invasive Insects, culminating in 6th–9th-grade students building traps to mitigate local invasive insect populations. Over three Design-Based Research (DBR) cycles, we gathered and analyzed identical pre and post-test data from 554 adolescents to address the research question: what three-dimensional (3D) science and engineering knowledge do adolescents demonstrate over three DBR cycles associated with a curricular program following the Iterative Science and Engineering instructional approach? Results document students’ significant statistical improvements, with differential outcomes in different cycles. For example, most students demonstrated significant learning of 3D science and engineering argument construction in all cycles—still, students only significantly improved engineering design when they performed guided reflection on their designs and physically built a second trap. Our results suggest that the development, refinement, and empirical evaluation of an ISE curricular program led to students’ design, building, evaluation, and sharing of their learning of mitigating local invasive insect populations. To address complex, interdisciplinary challenges, we must provide opportunities for fluid and iterative STEM learning through scientific investigation and engineering design cycles. 

Abstract Purpose The authors designed a science and engineering curricular program that includes design features that promote student interest and motivation and examined teachers' and students' views on meaningfulness, motivation and interest. Design/methodology/approach The research approach consisted of mixed methods, including content analyses and descriptive statistics. Findings The curricular program successfully included all four of the US National Academies of Sciences' design features for promoting interest and motivation through scientific investigation and engineering design. During interviews, teachers and students expressed evidence of design features associated with interest and motivation. After experiencing the program, more than 60% of all students scored high on all four science and engineering meaningfulness and interest survey items. Originality/value A curricular program that extends science learning through the engineered design of solutions is an innovative approach to foster both conceptual knowledge development and interest and motivation in science and engineering. 

Purpose We designed a science and engineering curricular program that includes design features that promote student interest and motivation and examined teacher and students’ views on meaningfulness, motivation, and interest. Design/methodology/approach The research approach consisted of mixed methods including content analyses and descriptive statistics. Findings The curricular program successfully included all four of the US National Academies of Sciences’ design features for promoting interest and motivation through scientific investigation and engineering design. During interviews, teachers and students expressed evidence of design features associated with interest and motivation. After experiencing the program, more than 60% of all students scored high on all four science and engineering meaningfulness and interest survey items. Originality A curricular program that extends science learning through the engineered design of solutions is an innovative approach to foster both conceptual knowledge development and interest and motivation in science and engineering. 

Why is engineering design important for all leaners? Engineering design systematically identifies needs, wants, and problems and then devises solutions to address them. A central component of our work is guiding students in the engineered design of solutions to local environmental problems. Science in society and schools must be for all citizens. Reasons include the desire to prepare citizens with the tools and knowledge to address local and global problems. With funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, we foster sustained learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for students from primary school through university.