Abstract
Development and Assessment of an Engineering Course for In-Service and Pre-Service K-12 Teachers The engineering education community has called for more engineering emphasis inthe P-12 classroom, and many states have begun to incorporate engineering into theiracademic standards. Despite this, very few K-12 teachers have formal training inengineering. As part of engineering education efforts at _________ University, a newcourse titled “Fundamentals of Engineering for Educators” was offered to educators inthe fall of 2010. Two pre-service and thirteen in-service teachers enrolled. The goal ofthis course was to provide teachers with a hands-on introduction to a variety ofengineering topics commonly found in undergraduate engineering programs. Thesetopics included machine design, manufacturing, thermodynamics, electronics, computerprogramming, and fluids. Each unit consisted of a lecture as well as hands-on labexperiences which allowed the students to apply the lecture material. Emphasis wasplaced on how the material is used by engineering practitioners and how it can bepresented in a way which meets K-12 education standards.In this paper we will present details on the content of the course, as well as assessmentdata. Our evaluation of this course will use a mixed methods approach. Having pre- andpost-survey data, triangulated with focus group interview data, we will examine changesin the participants’ learning outcomes in terms of engineering content and pedagogicalintegration and the rigor of the engineering course for educators. We discuss students’perceptions of the program as well as the identified effective components of the program.