Engineering-Mechanical (56) In order to provide Minnesota P-12 teachers training in engineering content, this project will develop a concentration in engineering for undergraduate education majors. The concentration provides students interested in education with exposure to rigorous engineering content while meeting state standards for licensure. Specifically, the project will develop two new undergraduate courses, "engineering in the P-12 classroom" and "fundamentals of engineering." The goal of engineering in the P-12 classroom is to familiarize students with the practical aspects of presenting engineering material in a P-12 classroom. The course focuses on current P-12 engineering education programs, explores relationships between pedagogy and content, links content to national and State Academic Standards, and surveys assessment mechanisms that evaluate impact of classroom initiatives. The fundamentals of engineering course is a survey of six main engineering topics: machine design, manufacturing, thermodynamics, electronics, computer programming, and chemical engineering. The project will implement and evaluate this concentration in engineering at the University of St. Thomas. The goal is to increase achievement in P-12 students as it relates to relevant standards in STEM areas with particular emphasis on engineering.
Through this grant, new programs in Engineering Education were launched at the University of St. Thomas, as a collaboration between the Schools of Education and Engineering. An undergraduate minor in Engineering Education (for Education majors) and a graduate certificate in Engineering Education were developed and implemented. New courses in topics such as "Fundamentals of Engineering," "Engineering Design," and "Engineering in the P-12 Classroom" have been developed and taught. Engineering and Education faculty have worked together to create hands-on courses that align with Minnesota academic standards and introduce P-12 educators to a variety of engineering topics and applications. Since the launch of these academic programs in the Fall of 2010, nine Engineering Education classes have been offered, with 51 students taking at least one class in the program. In 2012, we graduated our first students in both the undergraduate minor and graduate certificate programs. This work has also led to the development of short workshops and presentations that have been delivered at a number of education conferences and schools. Close partnerships with local public schools with engineering programs were established. External evaluation of the program, and its courses, was completed and the feedback from the assessment process has been used to improve the content and delivery of the courses.
