A central part of basic engineering design education aims for imparting profound knowledge of how machine elements are designed and building an understanding about how they work in detail within a technical product. In this context, a basic challenge lies in teaching to analyse complex systems that are usually characterized by a high number of…

Introducing kindergarten children to the engineering design process (EDP) is an important objective of early STEM education. Studies indicate that children often miss the crucial steps of testing and optimising during the EDP and do not persist in making solutions better. The present study explores how children's goal awareness, self-evaluation…

Integrating engineering design into K-12 curricula is increasingly important as engineering has been incorporated into many STEM education standards. However, the ill-structured and open-ended nature of engineering design makes it difficult for an instructor to keep track of the design processes of all students simultaneously and provide…

This paper investigates iteration and fixation in design by mining digital footprints left by designers. High school students used computer-aided design software to create buildings in an urban area, with the goal of applying passive solar design techniques to ensure optimal solar gains of the buildings throughout a year. Students were required to…

In this paper, I share the results of a study of teachers' ideas about student decision-making at entry into a professional development program to integrate engineering into their instruction. The framework for the Engineering Design Process (EDP) was based on a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) model. The EDP embedded within the CBL model suggests…

Learning analytics and educational data mining are introducing a number of new techniques and frameworks for studying learning. The scalability and complexity of these novel techniques has afforded new ways for enacting education research and has helped scholars gain new insights into human cognition and learning. Nonetheless, there remain some…

Engineering design is a complex process both for students to participate in and for instructors to assess. Informed designers use the key strategy of conducting experiments as they test ideas to inform next steps. Conversely, beginning designers experiment less, often with confounding variables. These behaviours are not easy to assess in…

As they prepared for the 2016-2017 school year, administrators and teachers at Design Tech High School ("d.tech"), a public charter school in Northern California, decided they needed a deeper understanding of how students learn. According to Nicole Cerra, Director of Learning, "Obviously you need to get to know students…

Many people are first exposed to code through web development, yet little is known about the barriers beginners face in these formative experiences. In this article, we describe a study of undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory web development course taken by both computing majors and general education students. Using data collected…

The proliferation of digital information technologies and related infrastructure has given rise to novel ways of capturing, storing and analyzing data. In this paper, we describe the research and development of an information system called Interactive Knowledge Networks for Engineering Education Research (iKNEER). This system utilizes a framework…

In many countries around the world, there has been an increasing emphasis on improving science education. Recent reform efforts in the USA call for teachers to integrate scientific and engineering practices into science teaching; for example, science teachers are asked to provide learning experiences for students that apply crosscutting concepts…

Inter-group peer evaluation through wikis was implemented as a method for senior capstone design teams to improve writing and the critical evaluation of data. Each group was evaluated by peers using a qualitative discussion and evaluated quantitatively by instructors. Students had an increased interest in contributing to online knowledge centers,…

This article describes beginner habits and misconceptions related to design practices. Once teachers are aware of these habits and misconceptions, they can more easily recognize them and work to remedy them through instruction. Presented herein are eight practice habits. Each item begins with the practice, describes a related design habit or…

Engineering is prominently included in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (Achieve Inc. 2013), as it was in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012). The National Research Council, authors of the "Framework," write, "Engineering and technology are featured alongside the natural sciences (physical…

In the 21st century, engineers are expected to be creative and work collaboratively in teams to solve or design new products. Research in the past has shown how creativity and good team communication, together with knowledge, can impact the outcomes in the organization. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among creativity,…