Engineering is fundamentally about design, yet many undergraduate programs offer limited opportunities for students to learn to design. This design case reports on a grant-funded effort to revolutionize how chemical engineering is taught. Prior to this effort, our chemical engineering program was like many, offering core courses primarily taught…

Contribution: This article defines "curricular hackathons" and describes the features, challenges, and opportunities of adopting the hackathon format into engineering curricula. It is based on experience implementing a series of curricular hackathons which provide students with formative design experiences as they address ill-structured…

International curricular redevelopment and quality improvement efforts include integration within and across disciplines as a focal point. Definitions and applications of the term 'integration' vary routinely in health professions education literature, weakening opportunities to enhance our educational practice through collaborative,…

Contribution: This article presents a comprehensive overview of characteristics of educational designs of collaborative engineering design activities found in literature and how these characteristics mediate students' collaboration. Background: Engineers have to solve complex problems that require collaboration. In education, various collaborative…

At Play in the Cosmos is a game for University-level Astronomy courses. Designed as a collaboration between the Games + Learning + Society Center, an academic center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Norton & Company, Cosmos is intended to support a "game-first" model of curriculum in which students play the game before…

Developing and using models to make sense of phenomena or to design solutions to problems is a key science and engineering practice. Classroom use of technology-based tools can promote the development of students' modelling practice, systems thinking, and causal reasoning by providing opportunities to develop and use models to explore phenomena.…

In the current study, an engineering design-based STEM activity was designed and implemented for 5th graders. The current activity is expected to provide guidance and perspective to teachers (practitioners) in designing and implementing an activity based on design-based learning, STEM activity, and engineering design process (EDP). At the same…

Background: School education should improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) ability not only in science and mathematics but also in technology and engineering. However, practice and research are being conducted without clear definitions and methods for STEM education. Moreover, the positioning and characteristics of the…

An understanding of how sensemaking unfolds when elementary students engage in engineering design tasks is crucial to advancing engineering teaching and learning at K-12 levels. Sensemaking has been widely studied in the context of science as a discipline. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the more nascent efforts to build theory about the…

Empathy, an unsung, yet critical element of learning, can be strategically interlaced with literacy instruction and engineering design to create a rich and authentic learning experience for students. Integrated STEM education rests on the promise of engaging students and providing deep understandings through the intentional practice of delivering…

In this work, BEAM robotics is proposed to enhance the STEM knowledge and skills of engineering students in the electrical, electronic, and mechanical domains. To evaluate the proposal, a course is designed and implemented based on a curriculum with objectives and learning activities centered on the design, construction, and operation of the BEAM…

Given the importance of cultivating scientific literate societies, the integration of scientific inquiry into school curriculum is key to contemporary science education. It is apparent that textbooks have been an accessible source of science information for teachers and students since the growth of public K-12 schooling worldwide. Textbooks are…

This study explores the integration of Design Thinking into the Key Stage 3 Design and Technology (D&T) curriculum at a school in North-West England, focusing on fostering 21st-Century Skills alongside subject-specific knowledge. The research draws on a multiple case study approach derived from the 'Solving Genuine Problems for Authentic Users…

The purpose of this practice to theory article is to present educational leaders with critical considerations for multimedia instructional content for emergent bilinguals (EBs) in dual language programs and other EB academic settings. EBs' academic development and achievement are advanced when multimedia instruction is intentionally designed to…

Although education is framed as a future-oriented enterprise, we often fail to serve the diverse futurities of youth, particularly in formal learning environments. The cultural norms of formal learning environments are rooted in dominant ways of being and knowing and this shapes how learning environments and learning technologies can be designed.…