Collaborative Research: Design and Development: NGSS-aligned Museum-based Engineering Education Program with Classroom Extensions

通过工程设计参与解决问题，培养解决未来社会和环境挑战所需的批判性思维和解决问题的能力。为了培养所有学习者的这种技能，新的K-12科学标准和下一代科学标准将工程设计作为从幼儿园到高中所有年级的重要重点。然而，对于全国的教师来说，将工程设计融入他们的课程将是一个重大挑战，因为K-12教师没有准备好促进高质量的工程设计活动，并且通常缺乏与工程相关的知识或经验。需要新的教学模式和教师发展。这个设计和开发项目将创建一个工程教育项目，将学生在互动科学中心的实地考察体验直接与课堂体验联系起来，同时帮助教师通过与自己的学生一起学习如何教授工程设计。该项目将成为一个可持续发展的模式，帮助教师培养专业知识和信心，促进工程设计课程的发展。提高K-12教师吸引学生参与真实工程设计的能力是增加追求工程职业的学生数量的关键一步。该项目将遵循基于设计的研究模式，重点是通过多次迭代设计和测试干预措施，并将涉及大学和互动科学中心之间的合作伙伴关系。干预将包括工程设计实地考察经验和协调课堂教学计划，将在实地考察前后在K-12教室进行。教师将通过在线指南和课程计划中的课程支持得到支持。收集的定性和定量数据将包括观察、录像、前后评估、学生和教师访谈、调查和学生作业示例。分析将集中在两个主要领域：(1)通过协调的实地考察和课堂扩展计划为学生确定学习机会，使学生参与工程设计；(2)确定课程特征，支持教师有效地进行工程设计教学，并引导教师学习如何促进工程设计课程。在这些领域的研究将导致开发工程设计课程和促进学生和教师学习的最佳实践。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。

Engaging in solving problems through engineering design develops the critical thinking and problem solving skills needed to address future societal and environmental challenges. In order to develop such skills in all learners, the new K-12 science standards and the Next Generation Science Standards include engineering design as a significant focus across all grade levels - from kindergarten through high school. However, integrating engineering design into their curriculum will be a significant challenge for teachers nationwide, as K-12 teachers are not prepared to facilitate high quality engineering design activities and generally have little knowledge or experience related to engineering. New models of instruction and teacher development are needed. This design and development project will create an engineering education program that links students' field trip experiences in an interactive science center directly to classroom experiences while helping teachers learn about teaching engineering design through working with their own students. The project will serve as a sustainable model for helping teachers develop expertise and confidence in facilitating engineering design curricula. Improving K-12 teachers' capacity to engage students in authentic engineering design is a critical step towards increasing the number of students pursuing an engineering career.This project will follow a design-based research model focused on the design and testing of an intervention through multiple iterations and will involve a collaborative partnership between a university and an interactive science center. The intervention will consist of engineering design field trip experiences and coordinated classroom lesson plans to be conducted in K-12 classrooms before and after the field trips. Teachers will be supported through an online guide and curricular supports within the lesson plans. Qualitative and quantitative data collected will include observations, video recordings, pre- and post-assessments, interviews of students and teachers, surveys and examples of student work. Analysis will focus on two primary areas: (1) Identifying the learning opportunities for students through coordinated field trip and classroom extension programs that engage students in engineering design and (2) Identifying the curricular features that support teachers in effective engineering design instruction and lead to teacher learning about facilitating engineering design curriculum. Research in these areas will lead to best practices for developing engineering design curriculum and facilitation that advance both student and teacher learning.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.