In this paper, we have combined a pragmatic and a sociocultural perspective on how artifacts are used in technical problem-solving. With these perspectives we explore how three mechanical engineering students build a plastic spider together, using instructions they found on the internet. Ten hours of video recordings were selected for a detailed…

What comes to mind when one thinks about building? One may envision constructions with blocks or engineering activities. Yet, constructing and building a number system requires the same sort of imagination, creativity, and perseverance as building a block city or engaging in engineering design. We know that children invent their own notation for…

Contribution: This research paper contributes to engineering education research with a framework for interdisciplinary learning outcomes based on students' experiences from participation in an interdisciplinary project for engineering students. A theoretical frame of reference is developed to analyze students' experience with interdisciplinary…

When young students engage with activities aimed at improving spatial reasoning, there is potential to also improve learning and performance in practical mathematics problem-solving tasks, scientific inquiries, and other STEM-based tasks. In this study, students worked in pairs to problem solve through 3D construction. The aim was to assess…

Technology and Engineering Education (T&EE) includes "engineering design challenges" to establish a connection to designing and problem-solving indicative of being an Engineer. Engineering design challenges involving bridges (or towers) have been a common feature of the discipline. These bridge design challenges ask students to…

The objective of this study was to examine in what ways and to what extent preschoolers (5-6 years of age) manifest early Engineering Habits of Mind (EHoM) while engaging in an open-ended problem-solving construction task. The study comprised 228 children (120 boys and 108 girls). The study implemented a quantitative approach. The main research…

In this article, we report on sixth-grade students' responses to a set of problem activities that required the application of mathematics, science, and engineering knowledge in designing and constructing a paper bridge that could withstand an optimal load. Increasing students' application and awareness of their disciplinary learning and how they…

The authors challenged their second grade students to design and build a small house for a Skylander toy character that would be economical, yet able to withstand "the elements of wind and rain." While this social studies (economics)/science/math integrated project was completed with second grade students, the lessons presented in this…

The paper examines how computational thinking can be taught to young children with the use of educational robotics using the kit LEGO WeDo. Computational thinking was measured in terms of four sub-skills, namely, sequencing, correspondence between actions and instructions, debugging, and flow of control. Students were assigned to an experimental…

It is a commonplace view today that schools do not prepare students properly for solving technical problems emerging in an ever-changing world. As attested by various PISA surveys, Hungarian students can only retrieve their knowledge situations. Their self-regulated learning, problem solving and cooperative skills do not develop in accord with the…

Children's free play naturally enhances skills of observation, communication, experimentation, as well as development of rationale and construction skills. These domains, while synthesised, can lead to the development of certain process models regarding the way constructions could be designed, built and improved. The Design Process model…

As part of a 3-year longitudinal study, 136 sixth-grade students completed an engineering-based problem on earthquakes involving integrated STEM learning. Students employed engineering design processes and STEM disciplinary knowledge to plan, sketch, then construct a building designed to withstand earthquake damage, taking into account a number of…

This proposal reports the findings from interviews with construction science students about their visualization of problems in a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional task. The specific research questions focused on the individual characteristics that students identify as influencing their spatial ability to generate internal and external…

We analyze the interaction of 3 students working on mathematics problems over several days in a virtual math team. Our analysis traces out how successful collaboration in a later session is contingent upon the work of prior sessions and shows how the development of representational practices is an important aspect of these participants' problem…

This article describes an after-school program at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf (HMS), the oldest public day school for deaf students in the United States, where almost half of the student body imagined and created bridge and robotic machines. The Deaf Robotics Engineering and Math Team, or the DREAM Team club, included HMS students in…