Description: The Make-an-Engineer activity has students create a paper or cardboard representation of themselves as an engineer. The engineer is comprised of a body piece where students write a problem they want to solve, two arm pieces where students write two things they are interested in, and a head piece where students write an engineering habit of mind they will use. The activity is flexible in how it is implemented, but the team currently uses it in conjunction with a brief presentation introducing students to engineering.
Grade level: 2nd-12th grade
Learning goals: Identify as an engineer and understand breadth of what engineers do.
Materials: Cardboard or paper cutouts
Time: 20-60 minutes
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 classrooms. Specific research interests include design metacognition among learners of all ages; the knowledge base for teaching K-12 STEM through engineering; the relationships among the attitudes, beliefs, motivation, cognitive skills, and engineering skills of K-16 engineering learners; and teaching engineering.
Chanel Beebe is an Engineering Education Researcher at Purdue University where her work focusing on broadening participation in engineering and engineering thinking. Her passion lies in empowering communities to solve their own problems using creative pedagogies and engagement strategies. Her research looks at using the engineering design process to address social issues in a way that keeps the design process in the hands of communities that face the social problems.
Dr. Avneet Hira is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Engineering Program at Boston College. She received her PhD in Engineering Education and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University, and BE in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College. Her scholarship is motivated by the fundamental question of how engineering and technology can support people in living well in an increasingly engineered world. Her research focuses on affordances of technology, humanistic design, and engineering epistemology to promote purpose and connection in engineering education. In her work, she partners with students and educators (middle school to undergraduate), youth and their families, community organizations, artisans, makers, designers, and technologists. Currently, she is part of a team setting up the Human-Centered Engineering program at Boston College.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2341-3866
Purdue University, West Lafayette
[biography]
Kayla is a doctoral student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research interest includes the influence of informal engineering learning experiences on diverse students’ attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of engineering, and the relationship between students’ interests and the practices and cultures of engineering. Her current work at the FACE lab is on teaching strategies for K-12 STEM educators integrating engineering design and the development of engineering skills of K-12 learners.
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