Razvan Oproiu Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at 8:56 AM I notice you’re listed as doing PD for teacher related to engineering, but you are in Utah and my school is in Texas. How can I find PD close to where I live? 1 Answers Louis Nadelson, School of Teacher Education and Leadership Posted Friday, October 31, 2014 at 11:58 AM This website is designed precisely to help solve this problem, the need to match needs with expertise. I used to run integrated STEM summer institutes in Idaho, and now I’m trying to replicate that here in Utah. I know Texas is a hotbed of STEM reform, ...Read More
Razvan Oproiu Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at 8:58 AM How did your school settle on using engineering as a central theme? 1 Answers Michael Town, Tesla STEM High School Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2014 at 10:35 AM My personal inspiration came from realizing how many important problems engineering solves and will need to solve in the future, and we need kids to be engaged in that problem solving starting at a young age. The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand ...Read More
Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Posted Friday, October 31, 2014 at 11:54 AM I have noticed that a lot of the kids in my 6th grade class get really excited about doing a design project, but it doesn’t really seem that the science and math concepts I’m trying to get in their heads stick. What am I doing wrong? 4 Answers Donna Migdol, Oceanside Union Free School District Posted Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 7:50 AM When doing a design challenge it is important to think of the following: - What are the opportunities for integrated math and science, and how can I expand upon it? - What is the math that I can "push" in, that is not integrated (asking students to be ...Read More Alexander Major II, Project ARISE; Brown University Posted Monday, April 13, 2015 at 11:35 PM Keeping it simple, real world application to their world. I have taught middle school for 17 years, and I have found that students need to see the concepts presented in their real world perspective so they can make a connection. I taught how to use a ...Read More Cary Sneider, Portland State University Posted Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 9:54 AM As a friendly amendment to Mitchell’s response, I suggest not only going through more than one design cycle by improving on a solution, but also presenting students with more than one challenge, so they need to apply the concept in in different contexts. ...Read More
Meg Draeger, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School Posted Monday, April 13, 2015 at 4:09 PM How are the "Schools Doing Engineering" selected to be listed on the LinkEngineering site? 1 Answers Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Posted Friday, April 17, 2015 at 2:09 PM Meg: Great question! At the moment, the list of schools you see represents those institutions known by NAE staff, through other projects we've done, to be engaged in some substantial way in delivering engineering coursework. We know this list is ...Read More
Alexander Major II, Project ARISE; Brown University Posted Monday, April 13, 2015 at 11:28 PM Can anyone give me a suggestion on how universities can assist public science programs in STEAM programs? I have pointed out in my power point, "Artistic Inquiry in the Sciences" (which culminated from a workshop visit to the Rhode Island School Of Design) that Art appreciation is needed to assist future scientists in engineering design. However, access to the needed resources to promote this perspective is difficult in the High School;Public Schools. 2 Answers Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Posted Friday, April 17, 2015 at 2:26 PM Alexander: Let me also suggest you contact another LE pioneer user, Jeff Lonnett, who has been weaving engineering design into his art classes. I believe his email is listed in his profile. If not, please contact me and I will connect you ...Read More Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Posted Friday, April 17, 2015 at 2:23 PM Alexander: There are many ways universities can interact with local PreK-12 schools around STEAM. (I am assuming the "A" you've added to STEM is for the arts.) Some invite teachers on campus for workshops or longer summer internships. Others have ...Read More
Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Monday, April 20, 2015 at 12:37 PM How can I bookmark or "pin" certain content to my profile so I can come back to it later? I only see the "bookmark" icon for only a few posts here and there throughout the site. However, I can't do that with other content, for example like this blog post by Greg Pearson http://www.linkengineering.org/14/698/722.aspx. It would be nice to be able to collect/pin things into our own profile homepage hub so that we don't have to search for it again. Similarly, having a "follow" option to follow a certain member/group/topic etc. would be great. 2 Answers Beth Cady, National Academy of Engineering Posted Sunday, May 3, 2015 at 3:44 PM For now the only items you can bookmark to your profile are those in the lesson plans/projects, professional development, or pre-service learning resource collections. We will be enabling the functionality to bookmark other items (like blog posts) and ...Read More Beth Cady, National Academy of Engineering Posted Friday, May 1, 2015 at 11:33 AM Hello Sneha, We are working on the functionality of the pins/bookmarks as well as the ability to follow people. I will post the answers once I have them.
Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Monday, April 20, 2015 at 12:47 PM With PTLW's Innovation Portal, can engineers provide feedback to student projects? I know this is a fantastic portal where students can receive feedback on their design projects from a global community of STEM educators. However, it would also be really great for students if they could get input from those working in industry, and I was wondering if the Innovation Portal allows for that, and if so, how do they vet the "expertise" level of those providing such feedback? I LOVE the idea of the Innovation Portal though, and plan on exploring it more. Thanks for ... 2 Answers Mark Schroll, Project Lead The Way Posted Monday, January 4, 2016 at 3:34 PM Hi Sneha. Students can indeed receive feedback on their work right through the Innovation Portal. This kind of connection and feedback is done through the portal every day. The one catch is that you would have to be invited by the student to connect ...Read More Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 2:55 PM Sneha: I believe that the PLTW Innovation Portal can be configured in a variety of ways to serve the needs of individual users. For example, it is being used in a number of states to judge student work in STEM competitions, which suggests that "judge" ...Read More
Gary Nakagiri Posted Monday, April 20, 2015 at 8:55 PM Recommendations for middle school science teacher who wants to incorporate some engineering/design projects into his course? He's relatively new so doesn't have much teaching experience - and no engineering expertise. THank you! 1 Answers Beth Cady, National Academy of Engineering Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 2:54 PM There are some lesson plans posted on the TeachEngineering website (https://www.teachengineering.org/. You can browse by topic and find instructions for incorporating the lesson into your classroom.
Alexander Major II, Project ARISE; Brown University asked Eric Iversen, Start Engineering Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 8:11 PM What type of engineering do you encourage with high school students? How do you acquire the needed resources to pursue the possible engineering projects? Does it depend greatly on the type of engineering? 2 Answers Eric Iversen, Start Engineering Posted Friday, May 1, 2015 at 11:41 AM At the high school level and before, it's best to focus on engineering "habits of mind," as people say these days. That means focusing on the design process more than a particular discipline or areas of technical content. The design process is the secret ...Read More Meg Draeger, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School Posted Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 11:39 AM High school students are very rarely informed enough to select one engineering discipline over another, and rarely need to prior to being in college, because of the design of most college and university engineering programs. Additionally, new fields and ...Read More
Alexander Major II, Project ARISE; Brown University asked Blair Blackwell, Chevron Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 8:15 PM With your filename, I assume that you support chemical and biochemical engineering. How do you involve students in the areas? Chevron has a big interest in engineering, so I ask how can students be motivated to explore the chemical/biochemical engineering area with little resources available for high school students? 2 Answers Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University Posted Monday, April 27, 2015 at 10:19 AM Chemical and biomedical engineering are an integral part of the profession. As the resources grow, expect to find more that apply directly to these areas. Food, medicines, paints, prosthetics, and many other applications are directly related to these ...Read More Meg Draeger, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School Posted Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 11:45 AM The American Chemical Society is a tremendous organization, that, at least in our area, has a very active professional section that is more than willing to conduct and support educational outreach, when requested. There may be chemists and chemical ...Read More
Jennifer Love, Northeastern University asked Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 12:06 PM Sneha, Would you be interested in collaborating with a former athletic footwear engineer on your friction "works in progress" I saw your "Works in Progress" posting on LinkEngineering and I am thrilled that you would like to develop an athletic footwear friction unit. I was a Performance Engineer at Reebok International in Massachusetts for 8 years and I specialized in traction design and friction testing of tennis, running, basketball, soccer, football, golf, walking, cross-training and casual shoes so I would be interested in working with you. How much research have you done in this area, in terms of what the ... 2 Answers Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 6:01 PM Hi Sneha! I have a powerpoint about the engineering of shoes that I have put together. I would love to share it with you in exchange for your unit! laurab@ncsu.edu Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 12:57 PM Jennifer, Thank you so much for reaching out to me! I would LOVE to work with you. It was my biggest wish and desire to have professional engineers in the field to help evaluate lessons and provide real feedback to student projects. I hadn't done much ...Read More
Jennifer Love, Northeastern University asked Kate Gramling, LinkEngineering Posted Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at 8:54 PM In answer to your question about other picture books about engineering... Kate, Other books that I use in STEAM and engineering K-12 outreach are: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires (2014) Engineering Elephants! by Emily Hunt & Michelle Pantoya (2010) Engineering the ABCs: How Engineers Shape Our World by Patty O'Brien Novak (2009) Rocks, Jeans and Busy Machines: An Engineering Kids Storybook by Alane Rivera (2010) What's Engineering? Color & Discover! coloring book by startEngineering.com (2015) Dream Invent Create: Engineer the World by ... 0 Answers
Tiffany Coulson, NLA Group Posted Friday, August 28, 2015 at 12:59 PM Our after school organization is interested in using digital badges or electronic portfolios. Is anyone doing this? 3 Answers Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University Posted Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 4:23 PM Hi Tiffany. Leigh Abts at the University of Maryland has worked in this area for years. I would encourage you to email him and ask for his set of resources. Abts, Leigh R. Abts, Leigh R. Research Associate Professor Fischell Department of ...Read More Linda Kekelis, Linda Kekelis Consulting Posted Saturday, November 28, 2015 at 5:45 PM The Afterschool Alliance produced a paper, Digital Badges in Afterschool, which describes case studies of five digital badging pilot projects run through the Afterschool Alliance and the statewide afterschool networks in Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, ...Read More Mark Schroll, Project Lead The Way Posted Friday, August 28, 2015 at 6:50 PM Hi Tiffany, The Innovation Portal is a free, online project portfolio application that may be of interest. Here is a description of the portal and its functionality and a link to the site. “The Innovation Portal enables students, teachers, and ...Read More
Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin asked Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 2:09 PM Anyone know of any good social-justice themed engineering design projects for the middle school level? Coming from a Catholic school teaching background, there was a heavy emphasis on social justice and community-oriented curricula. In thinking about engineering design projects for my students, I always thought this was a good theme to incorporate because not only did it align with our school's mission, but this was a great way to emphasize the authenticity and relevancy of curricula for students. Furthermore, I believe that this is an excellent way to emphasize social/community ... 0 Answers
Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 2:22 PM Anyone know of any good social-justice themed engineering design projects for the middle school level? Coming from a Catholic school teaching background, there was a heavy emphasis on social justice and community-oriented curricula. In thinking about engineering design projects for my students, I always thought this was a good theme to incorporate because not only did it align with our school's mission, but this was a great way to emphasize the authenticity and relevancy of curricula for students. Furthermore, I believe that this is an excellent way to emphasize social/community ... 5 Answers Meg Draeger, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School Posted Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 3:34 PM I also work at a Catholic school - a high school - where I coordinate our STEMM program. I'm an engineer by formal education but have worked in K-12 STEM education for 20 years. One resource for service-connected engineering projects for college and ...Read More Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Monday, January 11, 2016 at 9:20 PM Dr. Strobel, thank you for your response! Yes, I've heard about Purdue's EPICS program. I learned of it when I was applying to Purdue's Engineering Education program. The EPICS model is very impressive and I hope they develop this program further!Read More Sneha Tharayil, University of Texas at Austin Posted Monday, January 11, 2016 at 9:14 PM Hi Mr. Huffman, thank you so much for the resource! That's fantastic! I love the themes/goals the units work towards. Does your organization have any other plans to develop any other similar units/projects, aside from the ones currently in development? Read More
Kate Gramling, LinkEngineering Posted Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 10:00 AM What scene from a movie or TV program has made you think about engineering or the engineering design process? Movies and television programs influence the ideas and opinions people develop about professions - particularly young people with little or no personal experience or role models to compare with what they see on various screens. This reality was the motivation for the recently completed "Next MacGyver" contest. Before we can build on good ideas students have developed about engineering - or replace the bad ones - we should ... 4 Answers Mukesh Gupta Posted Tuesday, September 4, 2018 at 3:40 PM The first thing that popped into my head when I read this question was the movie "The Martian." What stood out to me, in addition to the incredible technological solutions showcased, was the perseverance exhibited by the main character - that ...Read More Pius Wong, Pios Labs Posted Sunday, May 21, 2017 at 11:47 AM This is a late answer, but we discussed this for our latest podcast episode: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep35.html For our conversation, we were two engineers working in education and a science teacher working in educational leadership. ...Read More Lynn Farrin, Maine Mathematics & Science Alliance Posted Friday, December 4, 2015 at 2:45 PM The first thing that popped into my head when I read this question was the movie "The Martian." What stood out to me, in addition to the incredible technological solutions showcased, was the perseverance exhibited by the main character - that is such an ...Read More
Linda Kekelis, Linda Kekelis Consulting asked Vicki Grisanti, Robotics Education & Competition Foundation Posted Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 1:09 PM What are effective practices to support youth with less experience and confidence and less access to resources? I know that robotics competitions can inspire kids in engineering and technology, especially those already with an interest. I also know from experience that some kids can shy away from competitions or experience personal challenges in the course of working on them. 1 Answers Vicki Grisanti, Robotics Education & Competition Foundation Posted Monday, November 30, 2015 at 10:42 AM I recommend engaging youth in robotics and programming as early as possible so that they might gain the confidence they need at a young age and continue to draw on that early exposure long into their robotics experience. The VEX IQ Challenge, a program ...Read More
Linda Kekelis, Linda Kekelis Consulting asked Jill Hubbard, Tigard Tualatin School District/South Metro-Salem STEM Partnership Posted Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 1:21 PM How do you encourage girls to enroll and stay in your engineering and CS pathway programs? Jill, I lead Techbridge, a nonprofit in Oakland, CA that supports girls in engineering and am always interested in hearing of the successes and challenges of encouraging more girls (especially those who are most underrepresented in STEM) to give engineering and CS a try. When they do they often find that they do like it. 1 Answers Jill Hubbard, Tigard Tualatin School District/South Metro-Salem STEM Partnership Posted Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 11:08 PM Interesting question. I'm involves with a national movement called CSforAll designed to encourage non-traditional students to participate in computer science. Initially, my approach was to specifically recruit students but as time went on, I started to ...Read More
Linda Kekelis, Linda Kekelis Consulting asked Yvonne Spicer, Museum of Science Posted Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 1:34 PM How do you encourage all families in your community so that they participate in engineering experiences at your museum? From experience, I know that some families may not feel welcome and need more personal and customized encouragement to come to museums. I would love to hear your experience and lessons learned. When I started Techbridge at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA we learned that loved the museum once they came, but needed special encouragement. 0 Answers
Linda Kekelis, Linda Kekelis Consulting asked Kavita Chandra, Northwestern Posted Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 1:47 PM What have been your biggest lessons learned from your mentoring experiences? I love reading of your commitment to outreach. Role models are so important for helping dispel stereotypes about who does engineering and what engineering is all about. They are especially important for kids who are most underrepresented in engineering. How do you get support to do your mentoring with community partners? 1 Answers Kavita Chandra, Northwestern Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 2:06 PM I have been a mentor for many years with a broad age range of mentees, from young children up to the undergraduate level. Regardless of the age, a mentor-ship relationship is symbiotic. It is important to understand what both the mentee and mentor would ...Read More