The Development of a New Instructional Approach to Teach Engineering in Middle School Science Classrooms

在中学科学课堂中开发一种新的工程教学方法本项目有两个总体目标。第一个目标是创造一种新的教学方法，中学科学教师可以用它来教授工程设计过程。第二个目标是更多地了解中学生如何提出、支持、批评和修改设计方案。这个项目将对中学生如何学习工程设计过程，他们如何提出、支持、批评和修改工程设计产生新的发现；以及教学的不同方面如何支持或限制中学生在参与工程设计过程中使用学科核心思想和交叉概念。该项目将直接影响四位教师和大约1000名学生。一旦这种教学模式被开发出来，它就有可能被全美国的教师采用。这种新的教学方法将使科学教师能够将工程概念和实践融入到《下一代科学标准》规定的任何中学科学课程中，而无需采用或购买全新的课程。此外，该项目有可能提高人们对工程领域的兴趣，并扩大妇女和少数民族对工程的参与。下一代科学标准（NGSS）呼吁中学科学教师在课程中加入工程设计，这样所有学生都能学会使用核心思想、横切概念和工程实践来解决问题。该项目采用设计-研究混合方法。项目团队将基于一种名为论证驱动工程（ADE）的新教学模式，开发、实施和修改4个原型工程设计任务（edt）。将从定量和定性数据的分析出发，对教学模式和教育教学进行迭代改进。该项目将产生并验证与工程设计相关的新实践评估，称为基于场景的设计评估（SAD）。SAD将进行三次（考试前、考试中和考试后），以跟踪学生的知识和技能随时间的变化。定性数据，包括edt的视频数据和学生工件的收集，将使用迭代内容分析进行分析。该研究项目还将对以下方面产生新的发现：a)中学生如何提出、支持、批评和修改工程设计；B)这些技能的模式如何随时间变化；c)哪些教学特征支持或限制了工程设计过程的学习。研究结果将用于改进ADE模型，以便将工程设计纳入课堂的教师能够有效地使用该模型。

The Development of a New Instructional Approach to Teach Engineering in Middle School Science ClassroomsThis project has two overall goals. The first goal is to create a new instructional approach that middle school science teachers can use to teach the engineering design process. The second goal is to learn more about how middle school students propose, support, critique and revise design solutions. This project will result in new findings about how middle school students learn about the engineering design process, how they propose, support, critique and revise engineering designs; and how different aspects of instruction support or constrain middle school student use of disciplinary core ideas and cross-cutting concepts while engaging in the engineering design process. This project will directly impact four teachers and a diverse group of approximately 1000 students. Once the instructional model is developed, it has the potential to be adopted by teachers throughout the United States. This new approach to instruction will enable science teachers to integrate engineering concepts and practices into any middle school science course as prescribed by the Next Generation Science Standards - without needing to adopt or purchase an entirely new curriculum. In addition, the project has the potential to enhance interest in the field of engineering and to broaden the participation of women and minorities in engineering. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for middle school science teachers to add engineering design into their curriculum so all students can learn to use core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and engineering practices to solve problems. This project uses a design-research mixed-methods approach. The project team will develop, implement and revise 4 prototype engineering design tasks (EDTs) based on a new instructional model called Argument-Driven Engineering (ADE). Iterative improvements of the instructional model and the EDTs will be made from analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. This project will result in the generation and validation of a new assessment of practices related to engineering design, referred to as the Scenario-based Assessment of Design (SAD). The SAD will be administered three times (pre-, mid- and post-) to track changes in students' knowledge and skills over time. Qualitative data, including the collection of video data of EDTs and student artifacts, will be analyzed using iterative content analysis. This research project will also result in new findings about: a) how middle school students propose, support, critique and revise engineering design; b) how patterns of the these skills change over time; and c) what features of instruction support or constrain learning of the engineering design process. The results will be used to refine the ADE model so that it can be used effectively by teachers who incorporate engineering design in their classes.