Engineering design was integrated into K-12 science education in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States, 2013), but teaching design remains a challenge for educators. Design problems are ill-defined, ill-structured, and complex problem-solving tasks. Their solutions require creativity and recursive, metacognitive…

Research in pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise in the last two decades. However, less research has been conducted to explore and characterize the engineering thinking and engagement of young children, with limited attention to children with special needs. Conversations on broadening participation and diversity in…

An essential aspect of higher education institutions' academic curricula for engineering courses is the students' industrial internship programs. In the literature, it is well accepted that such programs provide valuable learning outcomes and increase the graduates' employment prospects. Thus, it is paramount to evaluate the internship programs'…

Entropy is a central concept in thermodynamics, but has been found to be challenging to students due to its abstract nature and the fact that it is not part of students' everyday language. Interviews with three pairs of engineering students (N = 6) were conducted and video recorded regarding their interpretation and use of the entropy concept, one…

Poor graduate throughput and industry feedback on graduate inability to cope with the complex knowledge practices in twenty-first century engineering "problem solving" have placed pressure on educators to better conceptualise the theory-practice relationship, particularly in technology-dependent professions. The research draws on the…

Wicked sustainability problems (WSPs) are an important and particularly challenging type of problem. Science and engineering education can play an important role in preparing students to deal with such problems, but current educational practice may not adequately prepare students to do so. We address this gap by providing insights related to…

Background: Integration of engineering into middle school science and mathematics classrooms is a key aspect of STEM integration. However, successful pedagogies for teachers to use engineering talk in their classrooms are not fully understood. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study aims to address this need with the research question: How does a middle…

Background: It is widely known that for many students it is very difficult to correctly predict how thermal expansion affects the appearance of a metal plate with a circular hole. Interviews with school teachers show that the source of this difficulty could stem from the fact that students' internal visualizations of an arbitrary object's thermal…

Modeling activities enriched with 3D printers are effective in providing teachers with the skills they should have and in using the technology in mathematics education. In this regard, in the present study, ten-week modeling activities were carried out with 3D printers that are widely used in different fields along with educational environments…

This study was framed within a quantitative research methodology to develop a concise measure of calculus self-efficacy with high psychometric properties. A survey research design was adopted in which 234 engineering and economics students rated their confidence in solving year-one calculus tasks on a 15-item inventory. The results of a series of…

Contribution: Knowledge of students' Habits of Mind in a signal processing course, and a method for education research. The method identifies factors that may influence students' performance, but are not evident when analyzing agglomerated data; it is an alternative to the traditional case study method as it derives the cases after applying a…

Collaborations and partnerships across disciplines are becoming increasingly recognized as valuable endeavors toward solving emerging global challenges in our rapidly changing world. Thus, it is crucial to create STEM educational strategies that infuse diverse and interconnected perspectives among scientists, policymakers, and the general public.…

Research suggests that a significant reason that a large number of students earn low grades in the fundamental engineering science course Statics is that they may be entering the course with incorrect conceptual knowledge of mathematics and physics. The self-explanation learning approach called collective argumentation helps k-12 students to…

This study examined elementary pre-service teachers' (PSTs) perceptions about norms of interaction to emphasize with fourth-grade students as they worked in teams to solve an engineering design challenge. From analysis of PSTs' lesson reflections and post-unit interviews, the findings revealed a range of PSTs' conceptions for seven social norms of…

Engineers are faced with solving important problems every day and must follow a step-by-step design process to arrive at solutions. Students who are taught an effective design process to apply to engineering projects begin to see problems as an engineer would, consider all ideas, and arrive at the best solution. Using an effective design process…