Background: Implementing maker education in schools is on the rise, fuelled by its potential to move formal education towards a creative, technology-driven 21st century learning culture. In maker education, collaborative learning takes place through and around various digital and traditional technologies, which provide the means for students'…

Maker education can enhance learners' creativity. Design thinking can facilitate the innovative resolution of complex problems. The design thinking literature and most maker teaching modes are limited in their promotion of learning and ability development in various dimensions. Learners have stereotypes about some professions; interventions can…

Design of Mechanism is a standard subject in Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering majors. Different methods and tools are used by lecturers to teach the subject. In this work, we investigate the impact on the competencies development by implementing a project-based learning methodology in a mechanism course. For this, we analyze the performance…

STEM education is an easily identified area of innovation in the education field. The most significant innovation for our students' lives, however, is ensuring that these technology-based programs are providing opportunities for students to engage with the world in meaningful ways and to recognize how they can contribute to positive…

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of the scenario-based STEM project design process on pre-service science teachers' perceptions of 21st-century skills, competencies, integrative STEM teaching intentions, and STEM attitude. In the study, a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, which does not contain a control group, was…

This study ranked constructs articulated by Childress and Rhodes (2008) and identified the key indicators for each construct as a starting point to explore what should be included on an instrument to measure the engineering design process and outcomes of students in high schools that use the PLTW and EbDTM curricula in Idaho. A case-study design…

This paper presents the introduction of problem-based learning (PBL) in a power electronics course at the University of Oviedo, Gijon, Spain, by means of two practical projects: the design and construction of a switching-mode power supply (SMPS) prototype and the static study of a dc-dc converter topology. The goal of this innovation was for…

In order to foster creative engineers, a creativity training programme was carried out in medialogy education in a Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment at Aalborg University, Denmark. This paper focuses on the question of how engineering students perceive the strategy of integrating creativity training into a PBL curriculum. A…

A case study was conducted during 1994-2013 on several groups of process engineering students to see what was needed to transform a single course from a teacher-centred to a student-centred learning environment (SCLE). Development work was done incrementally, using Herbart's didactic triangle as a theoretical framework. The effects of the…

This paper presents an innovative, interdisciplinary, design-and-build course created to improve placement, content, and pedagogy for introductory engineering design education. Infused at the freshman level, the course aims to promote expert design thinking by using problem-based learning (PBL) as the mode of delivery. The course is structured to…

The current emphasis in K-12 education on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (Douglas, Iversen, & Kalyandurg, 2004; Sanders, 2009) creates many ways to partner engineering education with these fields. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine the commonalities these fields have with engineering education. Though much of the…

This paper describes some ideas and experiences with training student engineers in creativity and critical thinking. In our survey, a large majority (82%) of respondents felt that as compared to all other kind of academic engagements, their projects had contributed most to develop their creativity. About 50% had also felt that their projects were…

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known student-centred methodology for engineering design education. The methodology claims to offer a number of educational benefits. This paper evaluates the student perceptions of the initial and second offering of a first-year design unit at Griffith University in Australia. It builds on an earlier…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share the content and early results from an interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum that integrates theory and practice (praxis). The curriculum links new topical courses concerning renewable energy, food, water, engineering and social change with specialized labs that enhance technological and…

The topic of alternative energy is not only relevant to a multitude of issues today, it is also an effective vehicle for developing instruction that applies across a variety of content disciplines and academic standards. Since many of the issues associated with alternative energy are open-ended, alternative energy also lends itself to…