Engineering Design in Scientific Inquiry

Boise State University, Boise ID

Investigators

Abstract

Engineering at the pre-college level is becoming increasingly important, and yet, teachers receive minimal preparation in this area. This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Exploration and Design project, the Engineering Design in Scientific Inquiry (EDISIn) Project, seeks to address the engineering preparation of secondary science teachers by embedding engineering design into a science course for single-subject STEM education majors (future secondary teachers), and developing a sequence of lesson plans and annotated video for faculty who seek to integrate engineering design into their science courses. While undergraduate laboratories are rich with designed experimental apparatus, it is rare that students themselves play a role in designing and producing artifacts in the service of scientific inquiry. This project makes manifest the following expectations: (1) existing science courses offer opportunities for students to engage meaningfully with engineering practices by solving design challenges that emerge in the construction of scientific ideas; (2) doing so can capitalize on existing curricula that science education has developed, facilitating the adoption of engineering design into preservice teacher education; and (3) engaging engineering faculty in co-teaching and consulting in these courses will not only strengthen the outcomes of this project but also better prepare engineers to engage with K-12 education, and prepare science faculty to more authentically engage students in engineering design in the context of their courses. As an NSF IUSE funding project, it is part of a broader effort to transform undergraduate science education, preparing students to be innovators and leaders in STEM. This project will modify curriculum in a required science course for STEM majors receiving their secondary teaching credential, examine where design challenges emerge during instruction, and use these as opportunities to embed engineering instruction into courses. The project will use video-based research to explore where and how these challenges emerge, how they can be addressed, and the relationships between learning engineering design and science content. Project artifacts will include curricular materials, paired with annotated video and students' designed products, for faculty who teach similar courses, and the research findings associated with three research questions. The intellectual merit behind this project lies in addressing these research questions through design-based educational research: (1) Where do design problems and opportunities emerge in science instruction? (2) How are those problems, their constraints, and solutions consistent with engineering design, and how do they differ? and (3) What specific curricular tools and pedagogical practices can scaffold students' engagement with emergent design problems in science? These questions are critical for increasing engineering education in the K-12 setting, for developing courses for future K-12 teachers that prepare them to teach engineering standards found in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) engineering standards, and, eventually, to reimagine how undergraduate science courses can be redesigned to include design throughout STEM majors' undergraduate career. The products emanating from this work will be disseminated online via a project website, through the National Science Digital Library, and through PhysPort and the UTeach network--a cohort of 44 universities that are implementing a credentialing process integrated with STEM majors. Ultimately, this project has the potential for broad impact by: (1) creating a cadre of teachers that are specifically prepared to plan for, enact, and assess science and engineering practices outlined in the NGSS; these teachers will primarily serve in a high-need rural state (Idaho); (2) developing and disseminating curricula that prepare future teachers to address the engineering standards in NGSS; (3) shedding light on the interactions between science and engineering, particularly how the two sets of practices may be integrated in meaningful ways for the preparation of future K-12 teachers; and (4) further develop relationships at Boise State University between science, engineering and education to more authentically integrate these disciplines, and serve as a model for other universities. This important work is supported with funding from the IUSE program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program.