PECASE: Developmental Engineering: An Examination of Early Learning Experiences as Antecedents of Engineering Education

该奖项由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助。普渡大学的工程教育研究事业奖将考察3至5岁儿童工程思维的幼儿先驱。这项在发展工程方面的新颖而全面的研究分为三个阶段，相互建立基础，并整合研究和教育目标。这项工作将调查幼儿如何感知和学习工程世界，然后将利用这些结果找到适当的方法，将工程概念融入幼儿教育和支持幼儿的发现。第三阶段将重点改革教师教育，将发展工程教育学纳入课堂实践。这项研究选择了两个不同的环境，一个是Head Start中心，一个是大学儿童发展实验室教室，以确保不同群体的学生参与其中。这项研究将促进对有关幼儿如何开始思考和学习工程学概念的基本问题的理解。决定教育和职业道路的选择从很小的时候就开始积累起来，这项工作将导致更广泛的学生群体和更强大的STEM准备。从长远来看，这可能会增加填补工程工作所需的工程专业人员的数量和多样性。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This engineering education research CAREER award to Purdue University will examine early childhood precursors to engineering thinking in children between the ages of 3 and 5. This novel and comprehensive research in developmental engineering has three phases which build on each other and integrate research and education goals. This effort will investigate how young children perceive and learn about the engineered world, and then will use these results to find appropriate ways to integrate engineering concepts into early childhood education and support of young children's discovery. The third phase will focus on transformation of teacher education to include developmental engineering pedagogy in classroom practice. Two different environments have been selected for this study, a head start center and a university child development laboratory classroom, to insure participation from a diverse population of students. This research will advance understanding of fundamental issues related to how young children start to think about and learn about engineering concepts. Choices that determine education and career paths begin to accumulate from a very early age, and this work will result in a much broader student population with stronger STEM preparation. Over the long term this can increase the number and diversity of engineering professionals needed to fill engineering jobs.