TeachEngineering: Democratizing Access to Engineering Education for K-12 Teachers

科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的TeachEngineering （TE）数字图书馆在K-12工程教育界享有声誉，因为它是经过课堂测试的、基于标准的、实践课程的高质量教师资源。作为大约70个工程资助单位的原创K-12工程课程的传播者，每年有320万用户（主要是教师）访问免费收藏，实现了20%以上的年增长。1,700多个TeachEngineering课程，活动和创客挑战支持教师在课堂上满足NGSS工程组件（以及其他科学和数学标准），旨在由非工程师教授，每月添加易于遵循的操作视频。该项目服务于根本的国家利益：加强广泛的STEM素养，提高普通民众对工程师工作的认识，吸引越来越多不同类型的学生进入工程领域，培养年轻人的抱负，并为推动国家经济的未来奠定学术基础。拟议的战略教育系统增强，扩展基于初级设计的课程（新的K-2重点），进一步以用户为中心的研究，扩大对提供混合教师专业发展的重视，将“E”放在STEM中，以及加强营销，确保TeachEngineering的持续相关性和可持续性。TeachEngineering （TE）数字图书馆的首要目标是通过广泛使用其课程集，为所有年轻人提供终身体验STEM的机会，从而实现工程教育的民主化。该课程集是一个免费的K-12教育资源，强调所有学习者的设计思维和工程思维习惯。与标准一致、以设计为中心、实际操作的工程活动依赖于现成的、廉价的和简单的材料。项目活动包括新的工具、实践和营销策略，以培养一个实践社区来吸引教师。TE团队将与主要的工程教育机构建立合作伙伴关系，成为K-12工程设计课程的首选资源，并为K-12教师创建混合工程设计专业发展培训，以便任何工程学院或学区都可以提供实践设计教育。创建新的方法将使TE课程更深入地与下一代科学标准（NGSS）保持一致，使所有K-12教育工作者（甚至是非stem的新手教师）更容易使用TE课程。最后，为了创造以公平为中心的入学途径并支持全国全日制幼儿园运动，TeachEngineering将推动更新的课程和营销重点，以加强K-12工程生态系统中的“K-2”部分。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

The TeachEngineering (TE) digital library at the University of Colorado at Boulder has a reputation in the K-12 engineering education community as a high-quality teacher resource of classroom-tested, standards-based, hands-on curricula. As the disseminator of original K-12 engineering curricula from ~70 engineering grantees, the free collection is accessed by 3.2M mostly-teacher users annually, realizing 20%+ annual growth. The 1,700+ TeachEngineering lessons, activities and maker challenges support teachers in meeting the NGSS engineering components (as well as other science and math standards) in their classrooms and are designed to be taught by non-engineers with easy-to-follow, how-to videos being added monthly. The project serves fundamental national interests: strengthening widespread STEM literacy, increasing the general population's awareness of what engineers do, attracting more and more diverse students to the engineering field, cultivating youth ambitions, and building an academic foundation to fuel the nation's economic future. The proposed strategic TE system enhancements, expansion of lower elementary design-based curricula (new K-2 focus), further user-centered research, a broadened emphasis on providing blended teacher professional development that puts the "E" in STEM, and enhanced marketing ensure TeachEngineering's ongoing relevance and sustainability.The overarching goal of the TeachEngineering (TE) digital library is to democratize engineering education by launching experiential lifelong STEM opportunities for all youth through pervasive usage of its curricular collection-a free K-12 educator resource that emphasizes design thinking and engineering habits of mind with all learners. The standards-aligned, design-focused, hands-on engineering activities rely upon readily available, inexpensive, and simple materials. Project activities include new tools, practices and marketing strategies to cultivate a community of practice to engage teachers. The TE team will forge partnerships with major engineering-education entities to become the go-to resource for K-12 engineering design curricula and to create blended engineering design professional development training for K-12 teachers so that any engineering college or school district can offer the hands-on design education. Creating new methodologies will enable deeper alignment of TE curricula to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), making the use of TE curricula easier for all K-12 educators' even novice, non-STEM teachers. Finally, to create equity-focused access pathways and support the national full-day kindergarten movement, TeachEngineering will promote a renewed curriculum and marketing focus that strengthens the "K-2" component of the K-12 engineering ecosystem.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.