Read more, in the October 2009 issue of Today's Engineer.
(UPDATE August 2017: IEEE-USA revamped Today's Engineer into a new publication and many of its older articles no longer appear in its archives. The article appears in full below.)
Engineering -- The Silent "E" in K-12 Education
By John R. Platt
What is the future of pre-college engineering
education in the United Stares? What learning opportunities do engineering
curriculum provide to students? How can policy-makers bring meaningful changes
to this country's educational programs?
These are just a few of the questions
addressed in the new report, Engineering
in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects,
released last month by the National Academy of Engineering and the National
Research Council's Center for Education.
The report, developed over the course of two
years by a team of educators and policy makers, found that the teaching of
engineering in elementary and secondary schools is still very much a work in
progress. This, it seems, is in spite of the recent focus placed on science, mathematics and
technology in K-12 curriculum.
The committee also set out to discover what
engineering curricula already exist, what methods have been used to provide
teachers with skills to teach engineering, how engineering education interacts
with other science-based curricula, and that impact engineering education has
on students.
STM vs.
STEM
The report finds that science and technology
education in the United States has so far mostly focused on science, technology
and mathematics -- commonly abbreviated as "STEM," even though the
"E" in STEM stands for engineering.
"A major unintended finding of this
report is that engineering is the 'silent E' in STEM," says Greg Pearson,
Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Engineering. "What the
committee came to realize, after lots of research, digging and workshops, is
that despite the increasing national attention to STEM education, nearly all of
the major references almost always referring to science or mathematics or the
two in combination, but almost never to T and E."
The report also found that, in practice the T
-- technology -- often relates to computer technology, not technology
education.
"We're not pointing this out because
we're suggesting it isn't there and needs to be recognized," says Pearson.
"We're not calling for another phylum of content. We're suggesting
something different and more problematic: a more integrated approach to how all
four of these STEM components exist in work and career environments.
Interconnection, integrated STEM, is something that this report discusses
briefly, and will hopefully generate a lot of discussion."
But despite its silence, the E does exist, it
just ins't talked about as much or
as well understood by the public, or even by the education field. The report actually found that a growing number of K-12 students in the U.S. are
experiencing the open-ended, problem-solving process of engineering design. More importantly, data
compiled by the committee suggest that these design-oriented experiences can
improve student interest and achievement in science and mathematics, increase
awareness of engineering as a
profession and the work of engineers, boost interest in
pursuing engineering as a career, and increase general technological literacy.
DEFINING
ENGINEERING
The report defines engineering as "design
under constraint," where the constraints include the laws of nature, cost,
safety, reliability, environmental impact, manufacturability, and other
factors.
According to the report's findings, teaching
"engineering" in early grades may involve simple design-oriented
tasks "such as the construction of a balsa wood bridge." Engineering
education in later grades could involve more open-ended design projects, which
could also include the application of mathematics or science concepts to solve
specific problems.
The committee found that teaching using the
design process -- "the engineering approach to identifying and solving
problems" -- offers numerous advantages for students and form an effective
education strategy. According to the report, the design process is "(1)
highly iterative; (2) open to the idea that a problem may have many possible
solutions; (3) a meaningful context for learning scientific, mathematical, and
technological concepts; and (4) a stimulus to systems thinking, modeling, and
analysis."
ENGINEERING
HABITS OF MIND
The report finds that teaching kids to think
like engineers also offers numerous benefits. Engineering education should
therefore, according to the report, focus on engineering "habits of
mind," a term which encompases values, attitudes and thinking skills.
"It's a way of looking at the world," says committtee member
Jacquelyn Sullivan of the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Specifically, engineering habits of mind offer
students a vareity of critical skills, including systems thinking, creativity,
optimism, collaboration, communication, and attention to ethical
considerations.
AN
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
An interesting element of the committee's
discoveries is that STEM education works best when all aspects of the acronym
are considered. "Engineering design provides the context for kids to learn
science and technology," says Sullivan. "The design process is a
great framwork, and it's the key thing that differentiates engineering from
science."
But Sullivan reminds us that K-12 students are
neither mini-adults nor college students, and that any incorporation of
engineering in K-12 must be developmentally appropriate. In other words, no
calculus at too early an age!
EDUCATION
FOR ALL
According to committee chair Linda Katehi, Chancellor
of the University of California, Davis, "Engineering in K-12 should be
thought of as 'education for all,' not education for a select few. STEM
literacy equals a linking of ideas. It helps prepare students for life in the
21st century."
"At least in a preliminary way, we find
there is some reason to think, at least in certain cases, that engineering
design activities and thinking can improve student interest and improve success
in science and mathematics," says Pearson. "There are strong clues
that teaching in an engineering way with engineering design which makes science
and mathematics relevant to concrete problems and can improve student interest
and achievement. We are recommending additional research on that
connection."
Committee member Al Gomez of Sun Prairie High
School, Wisconsin, put it best when he said that STEM education should allow
teachers to "focus on everyone, not just on making more engineers."
RECOMMENDATIONS
The report contains a number of
recommendations about how to best incorporate STEM education into future
curricula, and who is going to need to be involved to make it happen.
"Ultimately, it's going to be policy makers and leaders at schools of
engineering and throughout education, as well as at the White House, Congress,
and state level who need to engage in this issue, and we hope that they
do," says Pearson.
Among the report's recommendations:
"Foundations and federal agencies with an interest in K–12 engineering
education should support long-term research to confirm and refine the findings
of earlier studies of the impacts of engineering education on student learning
in STEM subjects, student engagement and retention, understanding of
engineering, career aspirations, and technological literacy."
"STEM education in K-12 ensures training
of a reliable workforce that can compete in a global economy," says
Katehi. "The consequences are measured in decades, not weeks or
years," she says, meaning the effects of this report's findings could be
feld for many years to come.
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