2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Exploring the Design and Delivery of Community Relevant Engineering Design in Elementary and Middle School Classrooms (RTP)

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 10: Community-Centered and Culturally Responsive STEM Learning

A growing body of research and curricula, and the NGSS, highlight the importance of students engaging in engineering education that is relevant to their lives, situated meaningfully within their communities and cultures, and aligned to their interests and values for deeper learning and engagement [1], [2]. Centering engineering problems within students’ lived experiences and epistemologies amplifies the social, interactive, and contextualized nature of engineering in the classroom, increasing student access to engineering practices, knowledge, and problem scope [3], [4].

To implement community relevant engineering education, teachers require sufficient professional learning (PL), yet research is still exploring how teachers learn to teach engineering in PK-12 classrooms and the purpose and features of engineering they then implement [5], [6]. As part of an NSF-funded project, we conducted a two-year PL for 15 elementary and middle school teachers using a Community Relevant Engineering Design (CRED) Framework [7] to develop their self-efficacy and instructional practice with implementing community relevant engineering design. This qualitative study explores how four of those teachers applied the research-based CRED principles presented in the PL to their engineering lesson design, classroom implementation, and practice.

Research Questions:
1. How do teachers design and implement community relevant engineering design in their classrooms in response to on-going PL?
2. What key instructional features and strategies of a community relevant approach to engineering education are most emphasized or adapted in teachers’ lesson design and implementation?

Over the two-year PL, teachers developed and implemented six CRED-aligned engineering tasks in their classrooms, participating in on-going learning that emphasized strategies for connecting engineering to local contexts and best practices in engineering instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy. Teachers recorded themselves teaching their CRED tasks and reflected on their teaching experiences through individual interviews. Data sources for this study include teachers’ lesson plans, 30-minute video recordings of classroom lesson implementation for each teacher, and transcripts of their 30-minute reflective individual interviews from the first year of the project. Video data were analyzed using a modified version of the Classroom Observation Protocol for Engineering Design (COPED) [8], focusing on types of teacher and student interactions and elements of community and culturally relevant pedagogy within each CRED stage. Content analysis [9] was used to analyze their lesson plan design, content, and interview transcripts to identify themes in relation to the CRED principles.

Results suggest that lesson design, content, and instructional practices all evolved over a year of PL. Notable CRED principles applied in the classroom included increased connection to community and culture through community partnerships, contextualization of tasks within local issues, and direct application to students’ lives and families. Shifts in instructional practice included increased student choice, autonomy, and discourse within the engineering tasks. Our findings provide implications for how community relevant engineering design is enacted in the classroom as a result of PL, the key principles teachers bring to their classrooms, and what we understand about teachers’ learning and application of community relevant engineering education.

Authors

Dr. Julie Robinson University of North Dakota [biography]

Dr. Julie Robinson is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota and the Director of UND’s Center for Engineering Education Research. Her research explores strategies for broadening access and participation in STEM, focusing on culturally relevant pedagogy in science and engineering. She also investigates strategies for increasing representation in STEM through teacher professional learning opportunities and by exploring the impact of group gender composition on girls’ motivation and engagement. Dr. Robinson is a PI and Co-PI on several NSF sponsored grant projects which focus on teacher professional learning and self-efficacy with implementing culturally relevant engineering education, connecting to place and community, and centering culture and Indigeneity within STEM education. Dr. Robinson has over twenty years of K – 12 teaching experience, including seven years as a teacher leader of professional development in the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, and in elementary science and engineering pedagogy.
Dr. Frank M. Bowman University of North Dakota [biography]

Dr. Frank Bowman is Thomas C. Owens Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering, Professor, and Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of North Dakota. He holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and a B.S from Brigham Young University
Adesola Samson Adetunji University of North Dakota [biography]

Adetunji Adesola is a graduate research assistant in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of North Dakota and works at the Center for Engineering Education Research (CEER). His research focuses on culturally relevant engineering design, engineering identity development, and promoting equity and inclusion in K-12 STEM education. He employs mixed methods approaches to advance engineering workforce development and foster inclusive practices within engineering education.
Adesikeola Olateru-Olagbegi University of North Dakota [biography]

‘Sike Olateru-Olagbegi is a doctoral level student in Education, Health and Behavior Studies (EHBS) with specialization in Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of North Dakota (UND). She is a Graduate Research Assistant with the Center for Engineering Education Research (CEER), UND. Sike’s research focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of microlearning interventions in diverse settings. Her research interests include Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Workforce Education and Development, Problem-based Learning, and Interdisciplinary Education.
Dr. Bethany Jean Klemetsrud P.E. University of North Dakota [biography]

Beth Klemetsrud is an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota where she studies equity and culturally relevant pedagogy in engineering education, waste to energy conversion, and life cycle assessment. Beth is from the White Earth Nation and is grateful to be able to work on my homelands and to be so close to my family and community. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She obtained her doctorate from Michigan Tech under the supervision of Dr. David Shonnard where she focused on renewable energy production and life cycle assessment of biobased energy production from hybrid poplar.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

« View session