Collaborative Research: A Comprehensive Pathway for K-Gray Engineering Education

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The K-Gray Engineering Education Pathway is the engineering "wing" of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). It provides a comprehensive engineering portal for high-quality teaching and learning resources in engineering, computer science, information technology and engineering technology. Project goals are to: 1) merge NEEDS and TeachEngineering into a unified K-Gray engineering educational digital library, 2) significantly grow high quality resources in the NSDL Engineering Pathway in a sustainable way, 3) align the unified curricular materials with appropriate undergraduate and K-12 educational standards, 4) grow the participation of content providers and users, 5) enhance quality control and review protocols for Engineering Pathway content, and 6) create a nonprofit strategy and partnership for the sustainability of the Engineering Pathway. This project also expands the Pathway's gender equity and ethnic diversity components by cataloging and reviewing curricular resources created by female-centric and minority-serving organizations. The K-Gray Engineering Education Pathway is having far-reaching impact by engaging K-12 communities and institutions of higher education, engineering professional societies, engineering research centers, NSF K-12 programs, and ABET. Key elements of the evaluation plan include a community-based needs analysis, definition and collection of usage metrics, and mid-term and final evaluations. Dissemination activities include email delivered through project and collaborating institution networks, electronic materials deployed on websites offering related educational materials, and in-person presentations at conference technical sessions and workshops, with each phase designed to provide audiences with greater command of K-Gray resources and applications.