Page 151 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

136 STANDARDS FOR K–12 ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

Appendix B: DRAFT
A Vision of Engineering Standards in Terms of Big Ideas

Cary Sneider, Associate Research Professor, Portland State University
Based on earlier work at the Museum of Science, Boston

One way of developing standards that are clear, coherent, focused, and rigorous is to first identify a small
set of big ideas that we want students to understand at a deep level, to remember for many years after
leaving high school, and to find useful in their everyday lives. These big ideas would provide a means of
deciding what to include and what to exclude from the standards. The following table is a suggested list
of big ideas in three dimensions of engineering education: critical knowledge about the engineering design
process, skill sets that enable students to apply the process, and habits of mind that frame the way students
approach problematic situations.

Knowledge 1. Engineering design is an approach to solving problems or achieving goals.

2. Technology is a fundamental attribute of human culture
3. Science and engineering differ in terms of goals, processes, and products.
Skill Sets 4. Designing under constraint.

5. Using tools and materials.
6. Mathematical reasoning.

Habits of 7. Systems thinking.
Mind

8. Desire to encourage and support effective teamwork.
9. Concern for the societal and environmental impacts of technology.

In the remainder of this appendix, we list learning expectations for the elementary, middle, and high
school levels for each big idea, skill set, and habit of mind. We use the term benchmarks to denote what
th
th
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students should know and be able to do at the 5 , 8 , and 12 grade levels, provided they have had
adequate opportunities to learn the engineering design process. These learning expectations are based on
prior national standards (NSES, Benchmarks, and STL), and our own experience in developing and
evaluating K–12 curriculum materials in technology and engineering.

Knowledge

Three big ideas characterize what students need to know about the engineering design process: (1)
engineering design is an approach to defining and solving problems; (2) technology is a fundamental
attribute of human culture; and (3) engineering and science are different but mutually reinforcing
endeavors. Learning expectations for each of these big ideas are listed below.
1. Engineering design is an approach to solving problems or achieving goals. Problems and goals
can be defined so they can be tackled systematically and satisfying solutions can be found.

Grades K–5: Elementary school children understand that everyone can design a solution to a
problem. Given a problem statement, they can ask questions to clarify the problem and learn what

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