The aims of this research were to examine the changes in the students' perceptions of engineers, engineering as a profession, learning of engineering design processes (EDP), awareness of engineering branches, and their future career choices through Engineering Design Process activities with the 5E learning model. Sixty disadvantaged students…

In this article, it is argued that processes of co-production can support teachers and students in organizing resources for justice through science learning. Drawing upon a critical justice conceptual framework, critical ethnographic data from one urban middle school classroom during a unit focused on engineering for sustainable communities were…

As STEM initiatives increase throughout elementary schools, literacy teachers need help finding their role in school-wide implementation. This qualitative case study explored the perceptions and willingness of sixteen literacy teachers to integrate engineering practices with children's texts. Through the lens of Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory,…

Learning to teach science using engineering design is a complex endeavor for elementary preservice teachers (PSTs). This entails helping PSTs understand students as sense makers and recognizing ways to notice, respond, and leverage their students' ideas throughout the design process. In this study, we follow a cohort of elementary PSTs through a…

With the increasing importance of teaching STEM to young students, the engineering design process (EDP) has become a popular learning platform in K-12 STEM education. The engineering design process guides students in solving engineering problems, but there is a lack of understanding of how students utilize this process. In this study, we explored…

Studies show that engineering is particularly suited for students traditionally experiencing difficulties in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects--including those marked learning disabled--because it supports literacy in its different manifestations (i.e., across modes). This article addresses this topic, building on…

Students build up their STEM career interest based on their experiences. However, it remains unclear how students reflect on their STEM experiences in light of their understanding of STEM careers. This study aimed to explore how students relate their practices in STEM project-based learning (PBL) with their perceptions of scientists' and…

Engineering design process-oriented STEM activities are activities that involve solving a real-world problem with teamwork by using integrative engineering design and engineering applications using scientific and mathematical concepts and 21st century skills. The research aimed to examine the effects of engineering design process-oriented STEM…

BME HealthReach is an educational outreach program where undergraduate BME students participate in an out-of-class design thinking course to create and teach interactive STEM activities to K-12 students, where children with chronic illnesses are the primary clients. We detail research that seeks to answer the following: (1) what impact does this…

Recent education reforms highlight the importance of engineering design as a tool to improve student science learning in this new view of K-12 science education. However, little research has investigated the thought processes students use while engaging in the highly complex activity of design. Therefore, building on theories of productive…

As part of a longitudinal study of the development and implementation of a middle school engineering design curriculum, we have used an occupational values subscale of the Assessing Men and Women in Engineering (AWE) project's Engineering version of the Core Survey for Middle School-Aged Participants to measure student occupational interest in…

This study explains the development of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) interest among elementary and middle schoolchildren. The cohort longitudinal design was applied, starting with three cohorts of students--fourth (10 years), fifth (11 years), and sixth (12 years) grade--followed for three consecutive years. A total of 947…

Environmental education is implemented in formal curricula in multiple ways, including K-12 science. In the United States, the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has provided a lens for considering how the goals of environmental education and formal science education may overlap and complement one another. Potential synergies…

Recent calls for reform in K-12 science education and the National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century emphasize improving science teaching, students' engagement, and learning. In this study, we designed and implemented a curriculum unit for sixth-grade students (i = 1305). The curriculum unit integrated…

Given the current emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and its key attributes, middle school is an optimal time to implement STEM-based curricula. However, the interdisciplinary and open-ended nature of STEM projects often makes implementation difficult. In this article, we describe a professional development…