2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Founded in 2000 with a grant from NSF (EEC - EWFD-Eng Workforce Development), our project is a free digital library of classroom-tested, standards-aligned K-12 STEM resources created in collaboration with educators across the nation. The major goals for the current NSF funded grant are:
Democratize & broaden the project’s classroom impact by creatively supporting K-12 teachers.
Create a community of practice among K-12 educators to empower teachers to adopt the collection as their own.
Advance penetration of engineering habits of mind among K-12 youth & educators through strategic partnerships.
Create tools to optimize the system for the constantly evolving digital landscape.
Realign the project’s lessons & activities w/ relevant & changing K-12 STEM educational standards, especially NGSS engineering standards & performance expectations.
Better serve NSF grantees through the publication & dissemination of their original K-12 engineering curricula.
During this past year, numerous activities and outcomes have occurred towards these goals. For example, total activities now number 1933 and video support resources total 550. Newsletters and professional development opportunities have helped create a community of practice. Partnerships with like-minded organizations have been cultivated and built-upon. Website and project management improvements have been initiated. All new resources are standards aligned and new collection organizations have been established. NSF RETs were continually supported through webinars and conference sessions.
This paper will focus on how the project is creating a community of practice among K-12 educators through professional development opportunities. Research has shown that whether in formal or informal settings, K-12 teachers and influencers need to be trained to bring engineering design into classrooms to increase students’ awareness of engineering, and ultimately, interest in and ability to pursue engineering careers [1]. Yet, many successful mathematics and science teachers express that their discomfort with engineering principles is a barrier to using engineering as a means of connecting STEM subjects across curricula [2,3]. Research shows that K-12 teachers would prefer to use an integrated approach with STEM education, but they do not feel well prepared to implement such an approach [4]. Simultaneously, 80% of assessed professional development (PD) opportunities do not meet the federal definition of high- quality, leaving a gap in both the content and the quality of available STEM PD for K-12 teachers [5]. The project aims to bridge this gap by offering a variety of asynchronous and in-person professional development opportunities in addition to the current virtual workshops. Each of these three options will provide high-quality opportunities to teachers across the US to help prepare them to successfully implement engineering design thinking into their STEM lessons. Results from our 2024 evaluation of virtual workshop offerings reveal that participants believe these sessions had a positive impact on their ability to bring engineering design into the classroom.