Engineering

Answering questions and solving problems are critical skills that affect the quality of life for all people. The content areas of science and engineering traditionally and most directly address the processes of inquiry and problem-solving. While there is an increasing body of research surrounding teaching academic content (i.e., mathematics and science) as well as skills that are critical to support student success in these areas (i.e., communication and self-determination), the research supporting instruction of math, science, and engineering practices and processes are only emerging. The purpose of this article is to provide a research-based framework for instructional design that provides ideas for cognitive accessibility and supports for students with MSD in STEM.

Historically, children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities (ID) and extensive support needs (ESN; individuals who require ongoing, intensive assistance in many areas of life) have been largely excluded from meaningful participation in STEM instruction. A focal point of this project was to investigate the behaviors of both teachers and students during the implementation of an engineering unit.

Project Bees is a NSF DRK-12 three-year project with the goal of focusing on teachers' development of engineering practices, including how teachers support their students' development of engineering-focused behaviors and mindsets through instruction.

Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students participated in the Solarizing Your School curriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design.

Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students participated in the Solarizing Your School curriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design.

This article describes a middle school energy literacy unit that uses green building science to uncover the important ways in which energy flows between natural and built environments. The place-based unit employs the student’s own school building as a learning tool to examine how light energy and thermal energy relate to the use of electrical energy—and ultimately impact global carbon emissions that result from using buildings every day.

Enacting reform-oriented, phenomenon-based instruction provides us an opportunity to more equitably teach science. Particularly, our teaching can be stronger when we elicit, notice and then use all students’ ideas and questions to inform how students collaborate to figure out phenomena. However, this is only possible if we learn to expansively notice the many language resources multilingual students have available for sharing their thinking, which requires teachers to see and hear beyond what has been traditionally privileged in school spaces. In this piece, we describe how we draw upon translanguaging theory and pedagogy to prepare prospective teachers to teach science with multilingual students.

In STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, people with disabilities are underrepresented. This study aimed to determine what barriers might prevent students with and without disabilities from pursuing STEM careers.

Now more than ever, the world needs citizens comfortable with interdisciplinary problem- solving in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to address global environmental and health challenges, including extreme weather, habitat destruction, and air pollution, among others. However, many countries report an insufficient number of individuals with experience in STEM problem solving. In addition, recent research indicates low interest and knowledge in STEM fields. In this mixed-methods study, we explored a potential relationship between interest and three-dimensional (3D) science and engineering knowledge.

For the promotion of youth voice to be successful, out-of-school-time (OST) program facilitators and classroom teachers need a common understanding of what quality looks and sounds like and support for implementing higher-quality instructional strategies. For well over a decade, the Dimensions of Success (DoS) observation system has provided such support in OST settings and, more recently, in middle-grade classrooms. In this article, we first demonstrate how DoS defines quality Youth Voice in OST and classroom settings through four vignettes based on observations of grade 5–8 classrooms and OST program observations, then provide strategies for educators to promote higher-quality Youth Voice by building on youth ideas and encouraging decision-making that drives their STEM learning forward.