Engineering Education for Middle School Students Alison Lee ID 376 AHS Capstone Fall 2006
What Goals did I set? Different theories and pedagogical techniques in learning How can we engage all students in engineering? –Project-based Learning Create a guide and lesson plan for teachers
Methods Literature Research
Methods Experience Interview with Dr. Seeley
What did I learn? We have a problem – There will not be enough qualified engineers, particularly women engineers in our future workforce. Average Science Performance for 8 th Graders Hungary, Japan and South Korea students all performed better than U.S. students. (TIMSS 2003 Data)
What did I learn? Middle School Students are complicated Stereotypes -- Gender -- Classroom Influences on Learning: --Preconceptions --Hands-on Activities --Group Work
What did I learn? Teachers Guide of Inquiry Teaching Knowledge Project-Based Learning Inquiry and Design Experience
What did I learn? - Lesson Plan Driving Question: What makes a composite strong? Design a composite that can hold the most weight. Project and Experiment: Create your own composite using different materials. Choose one variable to change in the experiment. Create three variations to test the variable. Design Notebook & Presentations
Assessment of product and process Deliverables: Teacher’s Guide & Lesson Plan Effective and comprehensive initial tool for teachers Informs teacher’s about project- based learning’s effectiveness Example Commentary its components and how to implement