Design and Development: Engineering and Empathy Pre-K/K

有效地解决工程问题需要应用广泛的技能。最近，大学水平的工程教育研究人员，以及专业的工程组织，如美国国家工程院，强调了移情在工程领域的重要作用。孩子们在4岁到6岁的时候，开始为表现出同理心打下基础。这也是孩子们通过积木和设计自己的乐器来探索他们的世界的时候;自然表现出工程师的倾向。为学前班和幼儿园课堂创建综合工程和同理心课程项目将研究通过在学前班（pre-K）和幼儿园（K）课堂上教授和学习综合工程和同理心课程对教育工作者和学生产生积极影响的潜力。早期教育教师有机会引入并积极定位工程学作为一门吸引人的学科，但只有在高质量的课程和适当的培训支持下才能做到这一点。在学前/学前阶段将工程学和同理心结合起来是一种创新的方法，它利用了幼儿教育工作者在支持社会发展方面的优势，这可以增加教育工作者的舒适度和实施的可能性。这项工作也可能对参与的学生产生深远的影响。将同理心和工程学相结合有助于将工程学定位为一个有爱心的职业，这对未来职业的兴趣，特别是女性的兴趣，会产生积极的影响。更好地理解工程作为一个关怀，同情的职业早期框架的潜力可能会对扩大工程职业的参与产生重大影响。提高在学前/学前班课堂中融入综合工程和同理心的能力，将为我们最年轻的学习者、工程师和未来的参与公民铺平道路，实践和深化对未来全球劳动力至关重要的同理心能力波士顿儿童博物馆与教育发展中心合作|中心的儿童和技术和波士顿公立学校，将采用基于设计的研究方法，以创造发展适当的，动手工程活动，明确整合同理心（其中，对于本项目的目的，将被定义为想象的能力，描述和理解另一个情绪）和工程学前班和幼儿园教室。项目研究和开发团队将与利益攸关方密切合作（教育工作者，课程专家和地区代表），以实现三个主要目标：（1）设计一个综合工程和同理心干预模型，满足每个利益相关者群体的需求，优先事项和背景，（2）建立有关干预对教师和儿童影响潜力的初步证据，以及（3）有助于早期学习环境中高质量的综合工程和同理心教学的研究，特别是学前教育和幼儿教育。该项目将开发一套工程活动（课程模块）和教师支持（包括专业发展研讨会），以支持幼儿教育工作者将综合工程和同情带给他们的年轻学生，以及一套设计原则，用于为学前/学前课堂开发综合工程和同情活动。项目研究将促进对两个主要领域的理解：（1）为学前教育/学前教育开发高质量的综合工程和同情资源的设计考虑，以及所需的教育工作者和学生支持，以及（2）确定这些资源对pre-K/该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得的。通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。

Effectively solving engineering problems requires application of a broad array of skills. Recently, college-level engineering education researchers, as well as professional engineering organizations such as the National Academy of Engineering, have highlighted the important role of empathy in the engineering field. Children begin to build the foundations for exhibiting empathy early on, that is, between the ages of 4 and 6. This is also a time when children are exploring their world through building with blocks and designing their own instruments; naturally exhibiting tendencies to engineer. The Creating Integrated Engineering and Empathy Curriculum for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Classrooms project will research the potential to positively impact educators and students through the teaching and learning of integrated engineering and empathy curriculum in pre-kindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten (K) classrooms. Early education teachers have an opportunity to introduce and positively position engineering as an engaging discipline, but they can only do so when supported with high-quality curriculum and appropriate training. Explicitly integrating engineering and empathy at the pre-K/K level represents an innovative approach that leverages early childhood educators' strengths in supporting social development, which could increase educator comfort and likelihood of implementation. This work could also have profound impacts on participating students. Integrating empathy and engineering helps to position engineering as a caring profession, which can have positive impacts on interest in future careers, particularly for females. Better understanding the potential for early framing of engineering as a caring, empathic profession could have significant implications for broadening participation in engineering careers. Increasing the ability to incorporate integrated engineering and empathy in pre-K/K classrooms will pave the way for our youngest learners, the engineers and engaged citizenry of tomorrow, to practice and deepen the empathic capacities critical for the global workforce of the futureBoston Children's Museum, in partnership with Education Development Center|Center for Children and Technology and Boston Public Schools, will apply a design-based research approach to creating developmentally appropriate, hands-on engineering activities that explicitly integrate empathy (which, for purposes of this project, will be defined as the ability to imagine, describe, and understand the emotions of another) and engineering for prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. The project research and development teams will work closely with stakeholders (educators, curriculum specialists, and district representatives) to achieve three main goals: (1) design an integrated engineering and empathy intervention model that meets the needs, priorities, and contexts of each stakeholder group, (2) establish preliminary evidence about the potential of the intervention to impact teachers and children, and (3) contribute to nascent research about what high quality, integrated engineering and empathy instruction looks like in early learning settings, specifically pre-K and K. This project will develop a set of engineering activities (the curriculum module) and teacher supports (including a professional development workshop) to support early childhood educators in bringing integrated engineering and empathy to their young students, and a set of design principles for the development of integrated engineering and empathy activities for the pre-K/K classroom. Project research will contribute to understandings in two main areas: (1) design considerations for developing high-quality integrated engineering and empathy resources for pre-K/K and the educator and student supports needed, and (2) establish the potential for these resources to impact pre-K/K educator understandings and perceptions of their ability to introduce engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.