2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Keywords: Pre-college; Engineering

Engineering requires a diverse range of experiences and perspectives to develop the most effective solutions. One group of individuals who continue to be underrepresented in higher education and engineering is rural students. To increase the participation of rural students in engineering, it is important to understand how engineering educators and researchers can support rural K-12 teachers in incorporating engineering and technology into their classrooms. This is of particular importance given that the integration of engineering into rural students’ curriculum could broaden their perceptions of what engineering is and who can be an engineer, which could lead them to become more interested in pursuing engineering after graduating.

This presentation will report on an effort to partner with rural K-12 teachers and administrators in Southwest Virginia to help them integrate engineering and technology into whatever subject they may be teaching (e.g., Art, English, Math, etc.). This effort began with a needs assessment using a survey and interviews. We broadly surveyed K-12 teachers and administrators in the region to determine their perceptions of available professional development, desired topic areas for professional development (e.g., curriculum, teaching and instruction, etc.), and motivations and challenges for integrating art and engineering into their curriculum. Interviews were also conducted with K-12 teachers and administrators from the region to provide a more in-depth understanding of educators’ professional development needs, experiences, interests, and accessibility, as well as the challenges they experience and support they receive when trying to implement new subjects or topics into their existing curriculum, including engineering.

Using data from the surveys and interviews, we developed a two-day professional development workshop for high school teachers in the region. The workshop targets topics and needs expressed by teachers that are specifically relevant to the Southwest Virginia context. It will focus on innovative ways to integrate engineering concepts by using systems thinking, data science, and artificial intelligence (AI) in connection with their current curriculum. Sixteen teachers were selected to participate in this workshop. All participants will have the option to receive ongoing support from our team as they implement what they learned during the workshop into their classrooms throughout the upcoming academic year. Additionally, we hope this workshop will be the beginning of continued partnerships with the school systems in the Southwest Virginia region.

This presentation will highlight the key insights obtained from all stages of this effort - from the needs assessment through workshop implementation. These insights will shed light on how higher education institutions can better support K-12 teachers’ efforts to integrate engineering and technology into their classrooms through professional development opportunities, with a specific focus on rural contexts. An increase in rural K-12 teachers integrating engineering into their curriculum could lead more rural students to become interested in engineering, helping to improve the diversity of the engineering workforce.