Middle-school science through design-based learning versus scripted. Inquiry: Better overall science concept learning and equity gap reduction

This paper contrasts performances overall and by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) for middle school students learning science through traditional scripted inquiry versus a design-based, systems approach. Students designed and built electrical alarm systems to learn electricity concepts over a fourweek period using authentic engineering design methods. The contrast study took place in the eighth grade of an urban, public school district, with the systems approach implemented in 26 science classes (10 teachers and 587 students) and the scripted inquiry approach implemented in inquiry groups of 20 science classes (five teachers and 466 students). The results suggest that a systems design approach for teaching science concepts has superior performance in terms of knowledge gain achievements in core science concepts, engagement, and retention when compared to a scripted inquiry approach. The systems design approach was most helpful to low-achieving African American students

Increasing student awareness of and interest in engineering as a career option through design-based learning

This paper describes a rigorous summer research experience and curriculum development opportunity for teachers, supported by professional development and classroom support, culminating with a citywide student design competition. The goal of this Research Experience for Teachers program was to bring real world innovative design into several urban, high school classrooms. The 8-week summer program comprised an engineering component and a learning science component. The goal of the engineering component was to provide an authentic research experience. Teams of 2-3 teachers were paired with a researcher in a school of engineering to further ongoing research of a product realization project. The goal of the learning science component was to scaffold teachers to develop a design-based immersion unit that they would implement in their science classrooms. Teams were organized by their content areas and provided professional development at a learning research center around relevant curriculum development strategies. This paper presents results related to common sets of knowledge and skills that teachers learned from both engineering design and learning science from the cohorts of teachers over the last three years. Findings include documentation of implementation success, changes of teachers' and students' beliefs about engineering and increases in student interest in engineering careers. © 2009 TEMPUS Publicatìons

Engagement and achievements: A case study of design-based learning in a science context

A major goal of science education reform is to produce curricula that improve the learning of all students. In this study, the authors explore the use of design-based learning (DBL) to achieve this end. They examined two middle school science classes taught by a teacher who switched for the first time from a standard, scripted inquiry approach to a DBL approach. The researchers were particularly interested in two questions. First, will students previously labeled high and low-achievers become equally engaged by DBL? Second, will the traditional gaps in science achievement associated with race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status be increased or reduced? The findings presented two aspects of learning: engagement and achievement. Engagement has the potential to highlight students' performance in a way that standardized assessment methods do not reveal. The findings of this study suggest that DBL has the potential to increase students' desire to learn, enhance students' success in science class, and increase students' interest in science topics

Evaluating the impact of a facilitated learning community approach to professional development on teacher practice and student achievement

The focus of this research was an evaluation of the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student achievement during implementation of a reform curriculum. The PD consisted of five four-hour workshop sessions distributed over the time teachers were implementing the reform curriculum in their classrooms. The research was conducted in a mid-size, urban school district over the span of two years. Three groups of teachers were contrasted: teachers who continued to use the established curriculum (N = 5), teachers who implemented the reform curriculum without participating in the PD sessions (N = 5), and teachers who implemented the reform curriculum while participating in the PD sessions (N = 13). Teachers who participated in the PD had approximately a one standard deviation advantage in their students' achievement over those who did not. We collected evidence of particular features of the PD that explained the differences in student achievement. The features included: distributing the workshops throughout the implementation; engaging teachers in an active learning process situated in the curriculum; and facilitating a collaborative community of teacher professionals. This study led us to believe that not only are the individual features of the PD important, but the combination of all three together is particularly powerful. © 2009, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Maker Education: Opportunities and Threats for Engineering and Technology Education

Over the past decade, the maker movement and in its slipstream maker education have attained worldwide popularity among educators, politicians, and the media. Makers’ enthusiasm for creative design and construction, using old and new tools has proven contagious, and is worth exploration and critical reflection by the community of engineering and technology education (ETE). This chapter describes what has been said about “making” by philosophers and educators; what maker education is, and what is new and not so new about it; why it has gained momentum; what the evidence is about its effectiveness and its possible weaknesses; and how mainstream technology education may benefit from maker education. This chapter concludes with ideas for a research agenda