2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Student Connections between Engineering Contexts and STEM Content

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 4: Engaging Authentic Engineering Practices

Integrated STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) curriculum can potentially increase student motivation because it provides a real-world context , promotes learning, and stimulates "higher-order" thinking. Curriculum developers designed the integrated STEM curricula for middle school students to utilize a problem-based learning approach in a science-focused lesson. Designers developed the curricula to incorporate STEM connections from all areas (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) into each unit through a "real-world" engineering design challenge. The curricula employ engineering challenges that engage and motivate students to apply newly learned principles to an engineering design problem. The curriculum aims to support student autonomy and competence needs by giving students structured opportunities to make choices in an engineering design project. The goal is that integrated STEM will motivate students with varying interests because of its variety and support for their sense of autonomy, choice, and competence. This study will investigate a pedagogical strategy that asks students to anticipate the learning they need to engage in as preparation for implementing their engineering design solution; "What do you need to know in order to solve the problem?" We examined 150 middle-school student engineering notebooks to determine: 1. Do students correctly anticipate the presence of each type of STEM connection in the unit (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)? 2. Do students correctly anticipate the nature of the STEM connections in the unit? In answering these questions, we can discover if students determine that they must learn the very same STEM concept(s) for which the curriculum was designed. If students anticipate the correct connections, we have reason to believe this supports students' feelings of autonomy, competence, and motivation. The answer to our questions provides the impetus for further investigation into how the variety and nature of connections inherent in STEM integration are perceived by students and may lead to greater student motivation.

Authors

Ms. Azizi Penn Purdue University [biography]

Azizi Penn is a professional software engineer with over twenty-five years of experience. She is an engineering education Ph.D. student at Purdue University and also serves as a lecturer and community outreach advocate at Sacramento State University. Prior to and during her graduate work, she developed a passion for providing engineering practice experiences to pre-college students.
Miss Rachel E. Higbee http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6011-9279 Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI) [biography]

Rachel is pursuing her PhD in Engineering Education at Purdue University. She has earned a BS in Civil Engineering from LeTourneau University and MS in Environmental Engineering from Purdue. Rachel’s current research focuses on fair assessments and evaluation in engineering, but she also has experience in photochemistry, water quality, PFAS remediation, and disinfection. In her free time, Rachel enjoys kayaking, hiking, and walking her dogs, Leo and Molly.
Hillary E. Merzdorf Cornell University [biography]

STEM Instructional Design Associate, eCornell, Cornell University
Siddika Selcen Guzey Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Dr. Guzey is an assistant professor of science education at Purdue University. Her research and teaching focus on integrated STEM Education.
Dr. Morgan M Hynes Purdue University at West Lafayette (PWL) (COE) [biography]

Dr. Morgan Hynes is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University and Director of the FACE Lab research group at Purdue. In his research, Hynes explores the use of engineering to integrate academic subjects in K-12 cla
Dr. Kerrie A Douglas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2693-5272 Purdue University at West Lafayette (PWL) (COE) [biography]

Dr. Douglas is an Associate Professor in the Purdue School of Engineering Education. Her research is focused on improving methods of assessment in engineering learning environments and supporting engineering students.
Prof. Tamara J Moore http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7956-4479 Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Tamara J. Moore, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education, University Faculty Scholar, and Executive Director of the INSPIRE Institute at Purdue University. Dr. Moore's research is centered on the integration of STEM concepts in K-12 and postsecondary.

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