TeachEngineering: Democratizing Access to Engineering Education for K-12 Teachers

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

The TeachEngineering (TE) digital library at the University of Colorado at Boulder has a reputation in the K-12 engineering education community as a high-quality teacher resource of classroom-tested, standards-based, hands-on curricula. As the disseminator of original K-12 engineering curricula from ~70 engineering grantees, the free collection is accessed by 3.2M mostly-teacher users annually, realizing 20%+ annual growth. The 1,700+ TeachEngineering lessons, activities and maker challenges support teachers in meeting the NGSS engineering components (as well as other science and math standards) in their classrooms and are designed to be taught by non-engineers with easy-to-follow, how-to videos being added monthly. The project serves fundamental national interests: strengthening widespread STEM literacy, increasing the general population's awareness of what engineers do, attracting more and more diverse students to the engineering field, cultivating youth ambitions, and building an academic foundation to fuel the nation's economic future. The proposed strategic TE system enhancements, expansion of lower elementary design-based curricula (new K-2 focus), further user-centered research, a broadened emphasis on providing blended teacher professional development that puts the "E" in STEM, and enhanced marketing ensure TeachEngineering's ongoing relevance and sustainability. The overarching goal of the TeachEngineering (TE) digital library is to democratize engineering education by launching experiential lifelong STEM opportunities for all youth through pervasive usage of its curricular collection-a free K-12 educator resource that emphasizes design thinking and engineering habits of mind with all learners. The standards-aligned, design-focused, hands-on engineering activities rely upon readily available, inexpensive, and simple materials. Project activities include new tools, practices and marketing strategies to cultivate a community of practice to engage teachers. The TE team will forge partnerships with major engineering-education entities to become the go-to resource for K-12 engineering design curricula and to create blended engineering design professional development training for K-12 teachers so that any engineering college or school district can offer the hands-on design education. Creating new methodologies will enable deeper alignment of TE curricula to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), making the use of TE curricula easier for all K-12 educators' even novice, non-STEM teachers. Finally, to create equity-focused access pathways and support the national full-day kindergarten movement, TeachEngineering will promote a renewed curriculum and marketing focus that strengthens the "K-2" component of the K-12 engineering ecosystem. 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.