Moonshot is the redesign of NASA’s High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS), which traditionally enga... more Moonshot is the redesign of NASA’s High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS), which traditionally engaged Texas high school juniors in a 16-week online course for credit and an intense week-long onsite experience working in teams with experts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC). Due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), our challenge was to design, develop, and deliver an online virtual experience to replace the all-expenses-paid six-day residential summer experience at JSC where HAS participants traditionally work with like-minded peers and NASA experts on authentic design challenges.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for the infusion of engineering practices begin... more The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for the infusion of engineering practices beginning in Kindergarten, yet little is known about how prepared elementary teachers are to incorporate these standards. The purpose of this study was to identify (a) the perceptions that in-service teachers hold about the nature of engineering and engineering design and (b) how these perceptions compare with the engineering practices put forth in NGSS. This study is part of a larger explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Study participants included 542 K-5 public school teachers who were responsible for the science instruction of their students. During the first phase of the study, participants completed an online questionnaire consisting of Likert, selected response, and openended items. The results of the survey were used to finalize interview protocols for the second phase, which consisted of follow-up focus group and interview sessions with a subset of the survey participants. Fin...
Background: Early-age engineering education can enhance preparedness and generate interest
in en... more Background: Early-age engineering education can enhance preparedness and generate interest in engineering careers prior to college. This article reports on collaboration between a university engineer and science teacher educators to introduce engineering career awareness in elementary classrooms. The resulting elementary school curriculum, Engineering is Everywhere, features video instruction by the engineer, a teacher activity guide, and a materials kit.
Purpose/Research Questions: Our research question was, “How might engineers and educators best collaborate in elementary engineering outreach efforts?” We co-developed curricula, prepared classroom teachers, and compared fifth-grade student learning outcomes to determine the most beneficial type of engineer instruction.
Design/Method: A quasi-experimental research design assessed the effectiveness of three instructional formats: engineer-led, engineer-visit, and engineer-video. Pre- and post-tests captured changes in fifth-grade students’ understanding about the work of engineers and attitudes about engineering.
Results: Findings indicated significant gains in all students’ understanding, with some differences across the three instructional formats. The engineer-led students did not show significant changes in overall engineering attitudes. Only the engineer-video students demonstrated significant gains in engineering job interests.
Conclusions: A qualitative comparison of the costs and benefits of each instructional format raised important considerations for planning engineer outreach. We recommend that engineers collaborate with science teacher educators in the design of video instruction and assist in preparing elementary classroom teachers to administer the lesson activities.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funding agencies require researchers to address n... more The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funding agencies require researchers to address not only the intellectual merit but the broader impacts of their proposed work. This research shares findings from an innovative broader impacts engagement by an NSF CAREER awardee engineer. Our project, titled Engineering is Everywhere (E2): STEM Career Outreach (see http://www.engineeringiseverywhere.com), included an innovative combination of virtual media and teaching kits to provide an age appropriate, career mentoring model that encourages and broadens participation of individuals that are underrepresented in STEM education and the workforce. Intensive collaborations with engineer and education faculty involved an afterschool pilot program, the creation of engineering career awareness videos, the development of a curricula kit for 5th grade classrooms, and the implementation of the final product in 4 rural schools. The goal of this article is to report findings about the influence o...
Texas public high schools induct beginning science teachers each year; yet, little is known about... more Texas public high schools induct beginning science teachers each year; yet, little is known about how schools induct beginning teachers. The three studies included in this dissertation use a mixed methods approach to explore data collected by the Policy Research Initiative in Science Education (PRISE) Research Group during the 2007-2008 academic year. The first study focused on principals' perceptions of teacher induction. A content analysis of interviews collected from 50 principals examined principals' perceptions of teacher induction. Analyses indicated that high school principals had an overwhelmingly narrow focus of mentoring and provided mentor teachers with little support or training. Findings indicated that induction activities for beginning teachers were front-loaded before the school year began and were left in the hands of unprepared mentors during the school year. Further analyses indicated that the primary purpose of mentoring and induction for beginning teacher...
Moonshot is the redesign of NASA’s High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS), which traditionally enga... more Moonshot is the redesign of NASA’s High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS), which traditionally engaged Texas high school juniors in a 16-week online course for credit and an intense week-long onsite experience working in teams with experts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC). Due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), our challenge was to design, develop, and deliver an online virtual experience to replace the all-expenses-paid six-day residential summer experience at JSC where HAS participants traditionally work with like-minded peers and NASA experts on authentic design challenges.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for the infusion of engineering practices begin... more The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for the infusion of engineering practices beginning in Kindergarten, yet little is known about how prepared elementary teachers are to incorporate these standards. The purpose of this study was to identify (a) the perceptions that in-service teachers hold about the nature of engineering and engineering design and (b) how these perceptions compare with the engineering practices put forth in NGSS. This study is part of a larger explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Study participants included 542 K-5 public school teachers who were responsible for the science instruction of their students. During the first phase of the study, participants completed an online questionnaire consisting of Likert, selected response, and openended items. The results of the survey were used to finalize interview protocols for the second phase, which consisted of follow-up focus group and interview sessions with a subset of the survey participants. Fin...
Background: Early-age engineering education can enhance preparedness and generate interest
in en... more Background: Early-age engineering education can enhance preparedness and generate interest in engineering careers prior to college. This article reports on collaboration between a university engineer and science teacher educators to introduce engineering career awareness in elementary classrooms. The resulting elementary school curriculum, Engineering is Everywhere, features video instruction by the engineer, a teacher activity guide, and a materials kit.
Purpose/Research Questions: Our research question was, “How might engineers and educators best collaborate in elementary engineering outreach efforts?” We co-developed curricula, prepared classroom teachers, and compared fifth-grade student learning outcomes to determine the most beneficial type of engineer instruction.
Design/Method: A quasi-experimental research design assessed the effectiveness of three instructional formats: engineer-led, engineer-visit, and engineer-video. Pre- and post-tests captured changes in fifth-grade students’ understanding about the work of engineers and attitudes about engineering.
Results: Findings indicated significant gains in all students’ understanding, with some differences across the three instructional formats. The engineer-led students did not show significant changes in overall engineering attitudes. Only the engineer-video students demonstrated significant gains in engineering job interests.
Conclusions: A qualitative comparison of the costs and benefits of each instructional format raised important considerations for planning engineer outreach. We recommend that engineers collaborate with science teacher educators in the design of video instruction and assist in preparing elementary classroom teachers to administer the lesson activities.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funding agencies require researchers to address n... more The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funding agencies require researchers to address not only the intellectual merit but the broader impacts of their proposed work. This research shares findings from an innovative broader impacts engagement by an NSF CAREER awardee engineer. Our project, titled Engineering is Everywhere (E2): STEM Career Outreach (see http://www.engineeringiseverywhere.com), included an innovative combination of virtual media and teaching kits to provide an age appropriate, career mentoring model that encourages and broadens participation of individuals that are underrepresented in STEM education and the workforce. Intensive collaborations with engineer and education faculty involved an afterschool pilot program, the creation of engineering career awareness videos, the development of a curricula kit for 5th grade classrooms, and the implementation of the final product in 4 rural schools. The goal of this article is to report findings about the influence o...
Texas public high schools induct beginning science teachers each year; yet, little is known about... more Texas public high schools induct beginning science teachers each year; yet, little is known about how schools induct beginning teachers. The three studies included in this dissertation use a mixed methods approach to explore data collected by the Policy Research Initiative in Science Education (PRISE) Research Group during the 2007-2008 academic year. The first study focused on principals' perceptions of teacher induction. A content analysis of interviews collected from 50 principals examined principals' perceptions of teacher induction. Analyses indicated that high school principals had an overwhelmingly narrow focus of mentoring and provided mentor teachers with little support or training. Findings indicated that induction activities for beginning teachers were front-loaded before the school year began and were left in the hands of unprepared mentors during the school year. Further analyses indicated that the primary purpose of mentoring and induction for beginning teacher...
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in engineering careers prior to college. This article reports on collaboration between a university
engineer and science teacher educators to introduce engineering career awareness in elementary classrooms. The resulting elementary school curriculum, Engineering is Everywhere,
features video instruction by the engineer, a teacher activity guide, and a materials kit.
Purpose/Research Questions: Our research question was, “How might engineers and educators best collaborate in elementary engineering outreach efforts?” We co-developed curricula, prepared classroom teachers, and compared fifth-grade student learning outcomes
to determine the most beneficial type of engineer instruction.
Design/Method: A quasi-experimental research design assessed the effectiveness of three instructional formats: engineer-led, engineer-visit, and engineer-video. Pre- and post-tests captured changes in fifth-grade students’ understanding about the work of engineers and attitudes
about engineering.
Results: Findings indicated significant gains in all students’ understanding, with some differences
across the three instructional formats. The engineer-led students did not show significant changes in overall engineering attitudes. Only the engineer-video students demonstrated significant gains in engineering job interests.
Conclusions: A qualitative comparison of the costs and benefits of each instructional format raised important considerations for planning engineer outreach. We recommend that engineers collaborate with science teacher educators in the design of video instruction and assist in preparing elementary classroom teachers to administer the lesson activities.
in engineering careers prior to college. This article reports on collaboration between a university
engineer and science teacher educators to introduce engineering career awareness in elementary classrooms. The resulting elementary school curriculum, Engineering is Everywhere,
features video instruction by the engineer, a teacher activity guide, and a materials kit.
Purpose/Research Questions: Our research question was, “How might engineers and educators best collaborate in elementary engineering outreach efforts?” We co-developed curricula, prepared classroom teachers, and compared fifth-grade student learning outcomes
to determine the most beneficial type of engineer instruction.
Design/Method: A quasi-experimental research design assessed the effectiveness of three instructional formats: engineer-led, engineer-visit, and engineer-video. Pre- and post-tests captured changes in fifth-grade students’ understanding about the work of engineers and attitudes
about engineering.
Results: Findings indicated significant gains in all students’ understanding, with some differences
across the three instructional formats. The engineer-led students did not show significant changes in overall engineering attitudes. Only the engineer-video students demonstrated significant gains in engineering job interests.
Conclusions: A qualitative comparison of the costs and benefits of each instructional format raised important considerations for planning engineer outreach. We recommend that engineers collaborate with science teacher educators in the design of video instruction and assist in preparing elementary classroom teachers to administer the lesson activities.