High School Teachers Engineering Education Professional Development: Foundations for Attracting and Engaging Future Engineers

Increasing engineering awareness and STEM literacy in the Louisiana K-12 community is a regional commitment led by the College of Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU). LSU‘s annual High School Teacher Engineering Awareness Program (HSTEAP), a one-week intensive professional development institute, aims to improve and support high school STEM education. This mixed-methods study measures the impact of this professional development for mathematics and science teachers‘ efficacy in engineering, design-based learning, STEM research and technology, and their ability to teach those principles to their students. Program organizers and curricula professionals developed an innovative curriculum thematically addressing the National Academy of Engineering 21st Century Engineering Grand Challenges, and facilitated the HSTEAP community to: a) create and implement engineering design-based projects, b) identify and frame engineering learning within the STATE Department of Education standards for science and mathematics teaching, and c) thoughtfully incorporate team-building and 21 st century skill development into their curriculum and teaching. In this paper, the constructs of high school STEM teaching and learning are shown, the critical interworking of our multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional team are discussed, results of a successful design curricula and professional development are presented, and a model is offered for the future ambitions and visions of pre-engineering education.