2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In Northern Virginia, engineering technology career pathways are underdeveloped. Rapid changes in industrial processes have led to an increased need for adaptable and flexible workers who can respond creatively to shifting production technologies (Agarwal et al., 2018). In particular, workers with expertise in design thinking, communication, and critical thinking skills are in high demand (Giffi et al., 2018). Despite high wages created by this demand, engineering technology careers are largely invisible to students and the belief that manufacturing is low-tech persists (Giffi et al., 2017; Magnolia Consulting, 2022). These conditions suggest that investment in teacher professional learning (PL) is warranted.
The integration of digital fabrication (e.g., 3D printing) into classroom teaching is one promising avenue to increase student interest and awareness of engineering technology careers (Peppler et al., 2016). However, studies of classroom implementation of digital fabrication technologies also report that teachers struggle to move beyond “keychain syndrome” – the tendency to fall back to reproducing simple objects, such as a keychain (Blikstein, 2014; Eisenberg, 2013). Educator PL in digital fabrication has centered on machine operation, and not the pedagogy, cognitive strategies, and processes to situate the technology (Smith et al., 2015).
This project investigates the effectiveness of a sustained and interdisciplinary design thinking PL fellowship (“Makers By Design”) in improving integration of fabrication and design thinking into teaching practice. Design thinking is a non-linear user-centered strategy used to approach the design of products, emphasizing collaborative project-based methods to solve real-life problems (Brown, 2008). In the classroom, design thinking can serve as a cognitive bridge between a design problem and digital fabrication technologies. Participating Makers By Design fellows (n=17) completed 1) a series of design thinking workshops, 2) practice teaching at digital fabrication summer camps, and 3) development and integration of a design thinking challenge. Fellows completed the above in interdisciplinary groups consisting of K-12 teachers, college faculty, and librarians.
Using a mixed-methods approach, this paper evaluates the extent to which participating educators reported increased confidence in integrating design thinking and digital fabrication into their instruction, demonstrated content mastery during teaching practice, and successfully developed and deployed design challenges. Data sources include pre- and post-surveys, focus groups within teaching discipline, and observations of summer camp and classroom teaching. Project results are aligned with the existing literature on successful PL (e.g., Capps et al., 2012) and recommendations for future digital fabrication-centered PL are discussed.