The engineering design process is very involved, and it is easy to superficially treat some design steps by rushing through them. This superficial treatment not only jeopardizes student learning of good design thinking skills, but it also fosters a sense of busywork because students feel as though they are just checking boxes rather than engaging…

As the field evolves over time, shifting from Industrial Arts, to Technology Education, to Engineering and Technology Education (ETE), so too does what teachers teach, how they teach, and the projects that they use. Projects that worked 10 years ago might not hold up today and, as reflective practitioners, they need to be able to align the current…

Race for the Red Planet was designed by Daphne Fauber to teach engineering design principles through the contextualization of popular culture, science fiction, and the current race for Mars. The goal of the lesson was for students to learn how people may be living on Mars in the future through a variety of interdisciplinary sources and various…

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association's (ITEEA's) "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" ("STEL") describes design thinking as an approach that allows students and educators to integrate other content areas by considering relevant contextual information to guide design and making…

Whether you teach elementary school students, secondary school students, or college students, you can include upcycling activities in your class to promote both design skills and an environmental ethic. This article shares how a teacher at one school is doing just this, providing suggestions for those who have different material processing…

Engineering design has been suggested as a viable instructional approach for Technology Education (TE) to intentionally provide students the opportunity to apply multidisciplinary concepts to solve ill-defined design challenges (Wells & Ernst, 2012; Sanders & Wells, 2010; Wicklein, 2006). Currently, the context for design challenges in TE…

Broadening participation in STEM education programs and boosting the STEM workforce, specifically increasing interest in engineering, has been a growing focus of the U.S. education system (Lawrence & Mancus, 2012; Strimel, Grubbs, & Wells, 2017). The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects overall STEM employment to grow by 8.9% from 2014 to…

Crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland does!" (Abrams, Levy, Panay, & Dobkin, 2005). Although the Old Line State is notorious for harvesting delectable blue crabs, the movie "Wedding Crashers" failed to highlight something else Maryland does well: engineering design competitions. This article discusses how a multistate…

Precious moments in life for an educator are taking time to reflect upon his or her teaching practices to evaluate effectiveness and overall impact. Often this reflection is a weekly if not a daily process for educators using a reflective practitioner model (SchÖn, 1983). For professors, many universities have opportunities for tenured faculty to…

Innovation has been an important aspect of economic and scientific success in the United States for decades. Hobday, Coffey, Saalfeld, and Colwell (2011) suggested that, in order to produce innovative ideas, one must have a design-thinking mentality. This article provides the readers with an example of brainstorming techniques that have been…

Integrating different science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas can help students learn and leverage both the equipment and expertise at a single school. In comparing graphic communications classes with classes that involve rapid prototyping (RP) technologies like 3D printing, there are sufficient similarities between goals,…

It is becoming increasingly important to consider the waste humans produce and options for reducing the impact it has on the environment. Allowing students the opportunities to research potential solutions and present their ideas results in an educated citizenry that considers consequences of technological advances. Throughout the course of a…

In 1984, James Buffer and Michael Scott produced the book "Special Needs Guide for Technology Education" (Buffer and Scott, 1984). This was a pivotal offering insofar as it set the stage for technology education educators, at the time, to think about and be provided with information regarding students with special needs in their…

Described herein is a science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM) secondary lesson created by graduate engineering student Safa Herfat, with modifications by her co-authors. The lessons learned from this case study are explored through an explanation of tolerance, a description of the lesson, the results obtained, and participant…

Education is a lifelong process of continuous learning and renewal. This is necessary because of ongoing research and changes in technologies. For educators, the need for training leads to a continual search for learning opportunities from many sources. School administrators routinely provide in-service training. National and state associations…