Engineering activities used in the K-12 classroom arise from a variety of sources. As engineering has the opportunity to penetrate farther into K-12, through the implementation of Next Generation science standards or through integrated STEM instruction, the proliferation of activities assigned the engineering moniker has increased tremendously. This paper describes a meta-analysis of activities from a variety of sources. The activities are categorized as to pedagogical technique, content standards addressed, engineering content taught, and other elements extracted from the literature. The goal of this analysis is two-fold: to determine trends with respect to content and type of activities that are being proposed and to perform a gap analysis. The sources used to locate activities are NAE, ASEE, and IEEE, as well as educator exchanges and related origins.
Dr. Laura Bottomley, Teaching Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Elementary Education, is also the Director of Women in Engineering and The Engineering Place at NC State University. She has been working in the field of engineering education for over 20 years. She is dedicated to conveying the joint messages that engineering is a set of fields that can use all types of minds and every person needs to be literate in engineering and technology. She is an ASEE and IEEE Fellow and PAESMEM awardee.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.