Page 39 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

26 STANDARDS FOR K–12 ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

Technology Education Standards. Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the
Study of Technology (STL; ITEA, 2000) has the most engineering content of the national STEM
education standards. Three of the 20 STL standards are explicitly focused on engineering-related
ideas and skills (Box 3-4), reflecting the close relationship between technology and engineering.
Even STL, however, could increase the infusion of engineering, for example by adding engi-
neering in Standard 3 (“The relationships among technologies and the connections between
technology and other fields”) and Standard 4 (“The cultural, social, economic, and political
effects of technology”). This might mean rewording to emphasize the engineering connection
rather than adding new content.
Reducing, or at least not increasing, the number of student learning goals would be important
for STL standards, as it would be for the Benchmarks standards. A change in the emphasis on
engineering in STL could most easily and logically be made if and when the standards, now 10
years old, are revised. The timing for such a revision seems advantageous in light of the recent
vote by members of the International Technology Education Association to change the name of
the organization to the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association
(ITEEA, 2010).

BOX 3-4
Technological Literacy Standards with
an Explicit Focus on Engineering

Standard 8: Students will develop an understanding of the attributes of design.

Standard 9: Students will develop an understanding of engineering design.
Standard 11: Students will develop the abilities to apply the design process.

SOURCE: ITEA, 2000.

Mathematics Education Standards. In contrast to science and technology standards docu-
ments, which define technology in very broad terms, mathematics standards have tended to
define technology more narrowly (i.e., as electronic tools) and do not refer to engineering at all,
except as one of many fields in which mathematics is used (NCTM, 1989, 2000). Nevertheless,
connections to engineering are implied in NCTM standards related to (1) problem solving and
(2) making connections to subjects outside the mathematics curriculum.
For a long time, the mathematics education community has sought to embed the learning of
mathematics in actual or concrete problems. The infusion of engineering-related ideas could be
one way to accomplish that goal. However, the recently released common core state standards
for mathematics do not even contain the word engineer or engineering (CCSSO and NGA,
2010).

Other Subjects. Engineering is relevant to many other subjects for which national K–12
content standards have been developed, and infusion could be attempted in these cases as well.
The committee did not have the time or resources to examine in depth the standards for geogra-
phy, social studies, history, civics, and the arts, but each of these provides potential opportunities
for including engineering-related materials.

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