Partial support for this work was provided by the National Science
Foundation under award EEC 0230702.
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Project Staff
Project Description
Project Objectives
Project Staff
Principal Investigators
Dr. Cathy Skokan
, PI, CSM, Engineering
Dr. Laura Kosbar
, Co-PI, Visting Faculty Member, CSM, Chemistry, Research Staff
Member from IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights,
NY
Dr. Barbara
M. Moskal
, Co-PI, CSM, Mathematical and Computer Sciences
Senior Staff
Dr. Judith Duffield, University of Colorado at Denver,
Project Evaluator
Dr. David Nelson, Dean of the College of Education, University
of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Dr. Jeremy Haefner, Mathematics Department, University of Colorado
at Colorado Springs
Project Description:
The purpose of this project, "Engineering Our World",
is to plan and pilot a program for improving teacher knowledge and student
understanding of the concepts of various engineering disciplines and how
these relate to their current science and mathematics curriculum.
The program will be designed to both engage and educate middle school students
through the use of hands-on, inquiry-based experiments in a mathematically
rich environment. One unusual feature of this program is the inclusion
of teacher workshops and monthly follow-up classroom visits. Another feature
is development of a course for pre-service teachers. The existence of
this new course will increase the impact of this project in years to come.
The focus of the summer teacher workshops will be threefold:
- to improve the middle school teachers' backgrounds of engineering
disciplines and their relevance to physical science and associated mathematical
concepts in their current curriculum,
- to introduce the teachers to techniques for integrating
content and learning standards (including content literacy) into the curriculum,
and
- to provide teachers with instruction concerning how to
use inexpensive materials to provide hands-on learning experiences in
their classroom.
The purpose of the follow-up classroom visits will be to assist
the teachers in implementing the hands-on engineering experiments in their
classrooms and to respond to teachers' questions concerning science and
engineering concepts. In other words, members of the CSM faculty team
will become a valuable classroom resource for both students and teachers alike.
In parallel with this effort, a program for pre-service teachers will be
developed. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs will pilot
a one-semester course for pre-service teachers covering the "Fundamentals
of Engineering". The pre-service teachers will use materials developed
through this project during classroom visits with in-service teachers
and apply these materials during their student teaching experiences at
the middle school level.
This project will develop/adapt an appropriate set of course material
for the teacher workshops and in-class lessons, and to test and evaluate
the materials in urban and suburban classrooms. The joint effort
of addressing both in-service and pre-service teachers will provide a continuous
stream of knowledgeable instructors that can use engineering principals
to illustrate the practical applications of science and mathematics to middle
school students.
Project Objectives:
The specific objectives are as follows:
1. To introduce engineering subject matter and its relationship
to traditional middle school science and mathematics curricula to in-service
teachers. This will be accomplished by:
- Providing a meaningful in-service engineering technology
experience for a total of 4 semester hours of college credit for professional
advancement purposes.
- Promoting the collaboration of teachers between schools,
grade levels, and districts in the state, through the use of technology.
- Introducing teachers to technology alternatives to science
content instruction through the use of probeware, computer software
and the Internet.
2. To provide pre-service and in-service teachers with a
repertoire of teaching strategies, activities and lesson plans for teaching
science and engineering technology in a mathematically rich environment.
This will be accomplished by:
- Providing teachers with a variety of teaching models and
strategies that are very effective in aiding student conceptual understanding
of science content and its relationship to engineering problem solving
methodologies.
- Providing teachers with experience in integrating science
and mathematics content standards with real world engineering problems.
- Providing teachers with hands-on experiences in problem
solving with emphasis on specific strategies that can be incorporated into
middle school instruction.
3. To provide teachers with a sustained experience that aids
in continuous improvement and innovation throughout the school year.
This will be accomplished by:
- Monthly in-class hands-on sessions with teachers and middle
school students
- Providing additional support (both manpower and materials)
during in-class visits
- Providing teachers and students with a resident expert
to answer questions, suggest areas for further study, evaluate conceptual
understanding and promote inquiry based learning approaches.
- Provide teachers with ongoing and timely evaluations and
discussion of success of teaching techniques and materials. Post-event
evaluations with all teacher participants at a given school will assist
in developing support networks and transfer of teaching strategies.
4. To provide standards based instruction to students in the middle
school classroom that results in substantial improvement in the students
problem solving approaches and capabilities as applied to science and
mathematics as measured by the Colorado State Assessment Program (CSAP)
tests of science and mathematics.
- To provide students with teachers who have an in depth
understanding of the relationship of real-world engineering problems
with science and mathematical concepts.
- To expose students to a variety of activities and teaching
strategies to aid their conceptual understanding of engineering and
its relationship to math and science content.
- To provide students with monthly, in-class inquiry based
engineering experiences with the assistance of CSM faculty or expert
teachers.
- To improve students learning of physical science and related
mathematical concepts
Project Resources:
Web Resources
May 2003
