Page 56 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 41

BOX 4-1
Possible Features of Guidelines for K–12 Engineering Instructional Materials

CORE ENGINEERING CONCEPTS, SKILLS, AND DISPOSITIONS
The guidelines should describe the essential content of engineering (e.g., systems, constraints, modeling,

analysis, optimization, creativity, collaboration, communication, connection between engineering and
society) and provide examples of how they play out in instructional materials

ELEMENTS OF ENGINEERING DESIGN
The guidelines should describe the elements of engineering design (e.g., problem identification, research,
brainstorming of solutions, experimentation, prototyping) in a way that emphasizes that the process is
nonlinear and that there is no single “correct” solution.
CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ENGINEERING AND OTHER SUBJECTS
The guidelines should describe how core ideas in engineering relate to other content areas. For example,
engineering design and scientific inquiry share a number of features that make them useful problem-

solving techniques. Inquiry can be used to develop data necessary to solving a design problem.
Connections with mathematics include data collection and analysis, modeling, and estimation.
PEDAGOGY

The guidelines should elaborate how engineering design can be used as a pedagogical approach that
encourages contextual, student-centered learning and provides meaningful opportunities for applying

mathematical and scientific concepts.
FINDINGS FROM THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES

The guidelines should summarize some of the most significant findings from the cognitive sciences, both
about learning in general and about learning engineering specifically. In engineering, for example, we

know that engineering design activities must allow sufficient time for purposeful iteration and redesign for
them to have an impact on conceptual learning,
DIVERSITY
The guidelines should emphasize the need for engineering education materials that appeal to diverse
student populations, point out language and images that are known to discourage interest among these
populations, and provide representative examples of instructional materials designed to appeal to students
of all backgrounds.
EXAMPLES FROM EXISTING CURRICULA
The guidelines should include representative activities from existing elementary, middle, and high school
engineering curricula.
RESOURCES AND IMPLEMENTATION
The guidelines should describe the need for various kinds of equipment needs and the costs associated
with different models of engineering education, as well as some of the practical and policy issues related
to implementation.

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