Integrating Engineering Concepts under Current K-12 State and National Standards

Abstract Interest in engineering by entering college freshmen is near a 30-year low. Young women especially are not attracted to engineering. Engineering is not featured in popular television programs and usually gets overshadowed in news reporting. Students in middle and high school do not hear about engineering in school since middle school and high school teachers are not well informed about engineering and applied mathematics and science. If engineering is to remain a viable and growing profession, especially among women and minorities, teachers need to be educated so they can present engineering material in a way that meets state/national science curriculum standards. Science standards, inherent in aligning curricula to these science standards, and a partial solution to overcoming these obstacles will be discussed in the paper. In particular, the WISE Investments program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, * introduces teachers and counselors to engineering and helps the teachers develop modules that can be introduced into present mathematics and science high school classes. Examples of these modules, developed to interest young women in middle school and high school, are given. These enriched modules increase curiosity and bring excitement into the classroom for the teachers and their students. Key Words: Middle School, High School, Engineering, and State/National Science Standards, Science education, Professional Development, Curriculum I. Introduction Despite calls for increasing attention to the contexts and applications of science and mathematics in K-12 instruction, information on engineering, one primary mode by which scientific and quantitative information interfaces with the general populace everyday, is not normally found in middle school and high school curricula. Students, young women in particular, do not get the opportunity to learn that an interest in mathematics and science might lead to an interest in engineering. Indeed, the middle school years have been likened to a “black hole” of education. K-12 mathematics and science curricula rehash the same concepts and skills year after year, with little evidence that students either attain or retain that knowledge.