The common purpose of models is to provide simplified representations of other phenomena. Depending on type, they are suitable for communication, documentation, prognostication, problem solving, and more. Various types of models, such as drawings, mock-ups, flow charts, and mathematical formulae, are important tools in engineering work. An…

As the field evolves over time, shifting from Industrial Arts, to Technology Education, to Engineering and Technology Education (ETE), so too does what teachers teach, how they teach, and the projects that they use. Projects that worked 10 years ago might not hold up today and, as reflective practitioners, they need to be able to align the current…

This study aims to investigate affordances of models and modelling in design projects in technology education. To learn more about affordances when working with models and modelling, four Swedish technology teachers were interviewed using a narrative approach. Despite a small number of informants data were rich, containing detailed descriptions of…

Engineering is increasingly expected in elementary classrooms now that the "Next Generation Science Standards" have explicitly identified engineering disciplinary core ideas as well as engineering practices. To incorporate engineering into their elementary classrooms, the authors used building blocks (i.e., LEGOS) to help students begin…

Modeling allows students to become more effective designers. High school technology and engineering students engage in engineering design challenges as part of traditional instructional practices. Model-eliciting activities (MEA) present students with opportunities to elicit mathematical thinking that facilitates modeling. Students (n = 266) from…

The purpose of this article is to provide awareness of the danger of design fixation and promote the uses of brainstorming early in the design process--before fixation limits creative ideas. The authors challenged technology teachers to carefully limit the use of design examples too early in the process and provided suggestions for facilitating…

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association's (ITEEA's) "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" ("STEL") describes design thinking as an approach that allows students and educators to integrate other content areas by considering relevant contextual information to guide design and making…

Design is a key element of both the teaching and learning of engineering and technology. However, the process of engineering design has yielded limited research results. This study explored the iterative design process by searching for sequential design thinking patterns. The researchers collected nine concurrent think-aloud protocols from…

The acronym STEM is a ubiquitous term for seemingly anything in--or related to--the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and the current dominant educational STEM discourse in teacher education is often organized around questions of how to integrate math and science into the other content areas or vice versa. The purpose of…

As U.S. public schools continue to diversify, it is necessary for educators to find ways to meet all students' needs in the classroom. By beginning small, with some of the teaching ideas presented within this article such as learning about and supporting your students' cultural competencies and integrating students' backgrounds and interests into…

Engineering thinking enhances real-world learning; it emphasises system thinking, problem finding and creative problem solving as well as visualising, improving, and adapting products and processes. Several studies have investigated how pre-service preschool teachers acquire their knowledge of technology and engineering; however, a clear…

The PIRPOSAL model is both a conceptual and pedagogical framework intended for use as a pragmatic guide to classroom implementation of Integrative STEM Education. Designerly questioning prompted by a "need to know" serves as the basis for transitioning student designers within and among multiple phases while they progress toward an…

When the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") document, (NRC, 2013) was released in April 2013, teachers in the profession had mixed emotions. Many viewed the standards as invasive to their classrooms, while others found them a refreshing take on what technology and engineering educators have been doing for years.…

The STEM TIPS mobile-ready support platform gives institutions or school districts the ability to provide immediate and customized mentoring to teachers through multiple tiers of web-based support and resources. Using the results of a needs assessment, STEM TIPS was created and launched in partnership with 18 Florida school districts. Further…

In this chapter, we argue that intersectionality is a theoretical and methodological framework by which education researchers can critically examine why and how students in STEM fields who are members of intersecting marginalized groups have distinctive experiences related to their social identities, other psychological processes, and educational…