Future K-12 Teacher Candidates Take on Engineering Challenges in a Project-Based Learning Course

This paper documents new engineering focused curricula for an undergraduate Liberal Studies course directed at future K-12 teacher candidates. The engineering design process is introduced to students within the context of a Project-Based Learning environment. Students are presented with engineering design challenges for which they must generate possible solutions, ask questions, seek information, reflect on project directions, and finally develop an artifact representing their design solution. Course learning objectives are centered on applying the engineering design process, approaching problem solving as an effective team, and becoming more reflective and skilled in providing actionable feedback in team settings while applying K12 content. Students exhibited excellent sustained inquiry, experienced the cycles of the engineering design process, added to their previously acquired content knowledge and developed teamwork skills. The curriculum development and course evaluation contribute to construction of a rigorous Project-Based Learning Framework incorporating engineering design. Introduction/motivation for new course K-12 teachers represent the most direct and consistent influence on students’ access to engineering knowledge. Teacher understanding and demonstration of engineering’s problem solving power and its relationship to society offer a highly effective vehicle for motivating student interest in engineering and other STEM fields. Additionally current science standards – Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS)1 incorporate engineering design into the learning objectives of science in grades K-12. However few classroom teachers have had the benefit of exposure to engineering design before beginning their teaching career. Just like their students, early exposure in the undergraduate curriculum that enriches future teachers’ knowledge of engineering and technology and its relationship to the world would benefit these candidates. Project based learning (PBL) and the engineering design process are a natural pedagogical fit. PBL is focused on knowledge and understanding of key content standards partnered with 21st century skills including the ability to work well with others, to solve problems and be a selfmotivated learner. The Buck Institute for Education2 describes the essential project design elements as stimulated from a challenging problem or question, characterized by sustained inquiry, set within an authentic context, offering students voice and choice, providing opportunities for reflection. The engineering design process may be expressed a number of different ways. One model is cast as a cyclic process, with progress going in either direction in the cycle and sometimes shortcutting from one step to another, as is consistent with the iterative nature of engineering design. The process is composed of steps which begin with the identification of the problem, followed by postulating and evaluating possible solutions. Engineering is Elementary3 expresses these steps as Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve, Figure 1. Figure 1. Engineering Design Process Figure 2. Text of the first Design Challenge. Within the context of the collaborative work of university education and engineering faculty and a local school district on an ongoing grant focused on improving teacher preparation for application of common Core standards and Next Generation Science standards, a liberal studies course was designed to introduce undergraduate students interested in entering the teaching profession with engineering design experience. While courses for non-engineering majors have been developed to expand literacy in technology and engineering very few courses focus on teacher preparation. Sorby, Oppliger and Boersma4 discuss several engineering courses developed for non-majors within the documentation of their unique engineering course intended for future K-12 educators. Hargrove-Leak5 provides another example of an engineering course embedded in a liberal arts curriculum.