Changes in Elementary Students’ Engineering Knowledge Over Two Years of Integrated Science Instruction (Research to Practice)

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 24.270.1
• Main Authors: Tafur-Arciniegas, Mariana, Douglas, K Anna, Diefes-Dux, Heidi A
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 15.06.2014
• Subjects: Curricula; Design engineering; Engineering education; Engineers; Exposure; Knowledge; Learning; Quality; Students

Changes in Elementary Students’ Engineering Knowledge Over Two Years of Integrated Science Instruction (Research to Practice)Through an NSF grant, this institute partnered with a large school district in South CentralUnited States to provide engineering professional development for teachers in grades 2-4 overthe course of five years. While the science learning objectives varied between grade levels, theengineering content (the definition of technology, what is engineering, what do engineers do, andthe engineering design process) remained the same for each of the three grades. Compared to theinstructional time spent on other subject matter covered in a school year, students receivedminimal exposure to engineering (M = 14 hours, SD = 8 hours). Yet, previous research from thisproject has shown that students on average do significantly gain in their understanding ofengineering after this level of exposure (author et al., 2012). It is unknown how students withmore than one year of this level of exposure develop in their understanding of engineering. Thereis a need to research how students’ knowledge of engineering grows over time with continuedexposure to engineering design classroom activities.The purpose of this study was to analyze elementary students’ changes in knowledge ofengineering regarding the definition of technology, the engineering design process, and the workof an engineer over two academic years where engineering lessons were integrated into thescience curriculum.From fall of 2011 to spring of 2013, two groups of students’ engineering knowledge wereassessed at the start and end of two academic years where engineering lessons were taught. Eachstudent’s knowledge was assessed a total of four times. The first group of students (n = 162)were assessed during their second and third grade years. The second group of students (n = 168)were assessed during their third and fourth grade. A repeated-measures ANOVA was conductedto analyze students’ learning over the academic years.The first group of students, those that first had engineering integrated into their second gradeyear, experienced significant gains in engineering knowledge over the course of the school year.Over the summer months, students’ significantly decreased in their engineering knowledge. Bythe end of their third grade year, students had again significantly increased in their engineeringknowledge, but not to a level that was significantly different from their mean score at the end ofsecond grade (Figure 1).The second group of students, those that had engineering integrated into their third and fourthgrade years, experienced significant gains in engineering knowledge at each of the time pointsassessed, including over the summer months (Figure 1).These results indicate that students in the third grade may be developmentally more ready toretain engineering related content than those in second grade. In addition, students who haveengineering lessons integrated into their third grade year are able to retain their level ofknowledge and further build upon it during the next academic year. Implications and futureresearch will be discussed.Figure 1. Engineering Knowledge Scores