Design and Development: Engineering and Empathy Pre-K/K

Childrens Museum Boston, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

Effectively solving engineering problems requires application of a broad array of skills. Recently, college-level engineering education researchers, as well as professional engineering organizations such as the National Academy of Engineering, have highlighted the important role of empathy in the engineering field. Children begin to build the foundations for exhibiting empathy early on, that is, between the ages of 4 and 6. This is also a time when children are exploring their world through building with blocks and designing their own instruments; naturally exhibiting tendencies to engineer. The Creating Integrated Engineering and Empathy Curriculum for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Classrooms project will research the potential to positively impact educators and students through the teaching and learning of integrated engineering and empathy curriculum in pre-kindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten (K) classrooms. Early education teachers have an opportunity to introduce and positively position engineering as an engaging discipline, but they can only do so when supported with high-quality curriculum and appropriate training. Explicitly integrating engineering and empathy at the pre-K/K level represents an innovative approach that leverages early childhood educators' strengths in supporting social development, which could increase educator comfort and likelihood of implementation. This work could also have profound impacts on participating students. Integrating empathy and engineering helps to position engineering as a caring profession, which can have positive impacts on interest in future careers, particularly for females. Better understanding the potential for early framing of engineering as a caring, empathic profession could have significant implications for broadening participation in engineering careers. Increasing the ability to incorporate integrated engineering and empathy in pre-K/K classrooms will pave the way for our youngest learners, the engineers and engaged citizenry of tomorrow, to practice and deepen the empathic capacities critical for the global workforce of the future Boston Children's Museum, in partnership with Education Development Center|Center for Children and Technology and Boston Public Schools, will apply a design-based research approach to creating developmentally appropriate, hands-on engineering activities that explicitly integrate empathy (which, for purposes of this project, will be defined as the ability to imagine, describe, and understand the emotions of another) and engineering for prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. The project research and development teams will work closely with stakeholders (educators, curriculum specialists, and district representatives) to achieve three main goals: (1) design an integrated engineering and empathy intervention model that meets the needs, priorities, and contexts of each stakeholder group, (2) establish preliminary evidence about the potential of the intervention to impact teachers and children, and (3) contribute to nascent research about what high quality, integrated engineering and empathy instruction looks like in early learning settings, specifically pre-K and K. This project will develop a set of engineering activities (the curriculum module) and teacher supports (including a professional development workshop) to support early childhood educators in bringing integrated engineering and empathy to their young students, and a set of design principles for the development of integrated engineering and empathy activities for the pre-K/K classroom. Project research will contribute to understandings in two main areas: (1) design considerations for developing high-quality integrated engineering and empathy resources for pre-K/K and the educator and student supports needed, and (2) establish the potential for these resources to impact pre-K/K educator understandings and perceptions of their ability to introduce engineering. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.