The Development of a New Instructional Approach to Teach Engineering in Middle School Science Classrooms

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Development of a New Instructional Approach to Teach Engineering in Middle School Science Classrooms This project has two overall goals. The first goal is to create a new instructional approach that middle school science teachers can use to teach the engineering design process. The second goal is to learn more about how middle school students propose, support, critique and revise design solutions. This project will result in new findings about how middle school students learn about the engineering design process, how they propose, support, critique and revise engineering designs; and how different aspects of instruction support or constrain middle school student use of disciplinary core ideas and cross-cutting concepts while engaging in the engineering design process. This project will directly impact four teachers and a diverse group of approximately 1000 students. Once the instructional model is developed, it has the potential to be adopted by teachers throughout the United States. This new approach to instruction will enable science teachers to integrate engineering concepts and practices into any middle school science course as prescribed by the Next Generation Science Standards - without needing to adopt or purchase an entirely new curriculum. In addition, the project has the potential to enhance interest in the field of engineering and to broaden the participation of women and minorities in engineering. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for middle school science teachers to add engineering design into their curriculum so all students can learn to use core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and engineering practices to solve problems. This project uses a design-research mixed-methods approach. The project team will develop, implement and revise 4 prototype engineering design tasks (EDTs) based on a new instructional model called Argument-Driven Engineering (ADE). Iterative improvements of the instructional model and the EDTs will be made from analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. This project will result in the generation and validation of a new assessment of practices related to engineering design, referred to as the Scenario-based Assessment of Design (SAD). The SAD will be administered three times (pre-, mid- and post-) to track changes in students' knowledge and skills over time. Qualitative data, including the collection of video data of EDTs and student artifacts, will be analyzed using iterative content analysis. This research project will also result in new findings about: a) how middle school students propose, support, critique and revise engineering design; b) how patterns of the these skills change over time; and c) what features of instruction support or constrain learning of the engineering design process. The results will be used to refine the ADE model so that it can be used effectively by teachers who incorporate engineering design in their classes.