Workshop - elementary engineering education: Engineering Teaching Kits for K-5 students

Abstract

Engineering education interventions are increasingly commonplace at the middle and high school levels; witness the popularity of activities such as FIRST Lego League, FIRST Robotics, and Project Lead the Way. Less common, though, are interventions at the elementary school level, and we offer a promising one in this workshop: Engineering Teaching Kits (ETKs). Currently, ETKs provide age-appropriate engineering activities at the middle school level, and are overwhelmingly popular among middle school math and science instructors for two reasons: the kits are based on relevant Virginia Standards of Learning, and are self-contained units built on the principles of guided inquiry and active learning. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to ETKs; work through activities from two ETKs scaled for elementary grades, Buoyancy (Archimedespsila Law) and Simple Machines; and design their own ETKs for K-5 students.