Background: The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for the integration of engineering content and practices in elementary science curricula, yet little is known about elementary teachers' preparedness to do so or their views on teaching engineering. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of the current study was to explore K-5 teachers'…

Background: Capstone design courses represent a critical juncture in students' development at the transition from school to work. However, few studies have systematically explored teaching in this context, leaving a significant gap in our ability to concretely describe faculty practices in ways that support subsequent explorations of the…

Path analysis was used to evaluate a structural theoretical model of the relations among different pre-university variables, social and academic experiences during the first year of university, and academic success, evaluated through first-year university achievement and permanence in the sophomore year or student retention. The participants in…

The university reward structure has traditionally placed greater value on individual research excellence for tenure and promotion, influencing faculty's allocation of time and definition of worthwhile labour. We find gender differences in Canadian natural sciences and engineering faculty's opinions of the traditional criteria for measuring…

At the start of each academic year, it is critical that school systems have developed a plan regarding how safety is to be enforced within their Technology and Engineering (T&E) education departments. This plan should focus on a uniform way to approach safety across all T&E courses and help reduce the liability of the school district,…

Engaging in engineering tasks can help students learn science concepts. However, many engineering tasks lead students to focus more on the success of their construction than on learning science content, which can hurt students' ability to learn and transfer scientific principles from them. Two empirical studies investigate how content-focused…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore creativity and how it changes over time among engineering students in practice-based entrepreneurship in higher education. This change was examined in students over a one-semester course in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship courses that use creativity tools for practice-based learning are expected…

Upon graduation, engineering (and science) undergraduate and graduate students are typically well-prepared for success in technical problem solving. However, they have had little exposure to the vagaries associated with the interplay of "people" and technical problems (sometimes referred to as sociotechnical efforts), especially as…

This study aims to investigate the properties of peer tutoring of first year engineering students on a Calculus-I course. Five dyads are constructed with different properties, and eight volunteer students. The students met regularly and studied calculus together for two months in technology-rich classrooms. To identify the properties and structure…

Are students transitioning from the secondary level to university studies in mathematics and engineering adequately prepared for education at the tertiary level? In this study, we discuss the prior mathematical knowledge and skills demonstrated by Norwegian engineering ("N" = 1537) and calculus ("N" = 626) university students…

Background: Research in engineering education has pointed to the need for new engineers to develop a broader skill-set with an emphasis on "softer" social skills. However, there remains strong tensions in the identity work that engineers must engage in to balance the technical demands of the discipline with the new emphasis on…

The Next Generation Science Standards emphasizes the inclusion of engineering practices throughout the K-12 science curriculum. Therefore, elementary educators need to be knowledgeable about engineering and engineering careers so that they can expose their students to engineering. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of engineering…

In this paper we present the results derived from a project aimed to study the "learning gains" obtained by undergrad engineering students that used two mobile learning resources (in video format). We conducted our study over a 6-year time interval applying "pre-test" and "post-test" instruments to both experimental…

As social beings, humans are influenced by other individuals in the contexts in which they interact. From early childhood through young adulthood, the family is one of the most significant social contexts contributing to one's identity development and social capital as they relate to education and career goals. Students' intended career paths and…

Understanding the nature of creativity and enhancing creative engineering practices, particularly within families, in making and tinkering learning settings has become an area that needs further research. In this dissertation, I developed Distributed Creativity across Everyday Expertise Framework to explore how families' sociomaterial experiences…