Brian Gravel

Engineering outreach: components of a best model for professional teacher development

Can engineering successfully be taught to elementary school students? Though many people are quick to answer that children can learn about engineering, the subject can be challenging to integrate with elementary level curricula since few teachers possess training in engineering or engineering education, in specific. This paper examines the results from two grants received by Tufts University: one National Science Foundation grant (NSF 9979593) and one grant sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education (MA 1698). Each grant focuses, to varying degrees of teacher involvement, on professional development to increase both engineering content knowledge and comfort level with engineering in the classroom. The National Science Foundation grant supports year-long placement of engineering graduate fellows with classroom teachers to infuse engineering into more traditional curricula; the grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education focuses on a week-long professional development summer course with follow-up meetings subsequent to initial intensive seminar. The strengths and weaknesses of both approaches are discussed.

The Role of Computational Thinking Practices in Making: How Beginning Youth Makers Encounter & Appropriate CT Practices in Making

1There are increasing calls to introduce computational thinking (CT) practices at the K-12 level. These calls are motivated by a consensus that CT practices can be valuable for everyone. This work is based on the assertion that making, or the personal construction of objects employing digital and/or analog technologies, can provide a rich context for enacting CT practices. This paper investigates the activities of a group of beginning youth makers creating an interactive digital/ physical water piano to ask: What forms of CT practices do they enact, and in what ways are these practices further developed in their work? Data includes qualitative ethnographic data including observations, recordings and interviews. We explore the ways youth encounter new, yet relatable and intriguing practices---like debugging to isolate an issue---and appropriate them within particular contexts and for particular goals, often to deal with the immediate challenges they are facing. We end by offering conjectures for ways to support beginning youth makers in appropriating CT practices.

Integrating Computational Artifacts into the Multi-representational Toolkit of Physics Education

Computational artifacts can serve as important components of the multi-representational toolkit of physics. But like any representation, the meanings of computational models are far from transparent: they are embedded within social, symbolic, and material contexts. In this chapter, we present case studies of two different learning communities that each worked to adopt a participant-generated computational artifact as a shared representational tool that they used to communicate and reason about physical systems. In one, collaborating physicists and mathematicians used a Mathematica notebook to explore the behavior of liquid crystals. In the other, a fifth grade science class used a student-generated computer simulation to reason about the processes of evaporation and condensation. We show how both groups: (1) developed a shared understanding of the computational artifact as a representational tool, (2) leveraged the artifact to focus their attention on their respective goals, and (3) discussed the strengths and limitations of the architecture of the computational environment relative to those goals. We highlight similarities and differences in how professionals and students took up these computational artifacts as shared representations, and discuss instructional implications given the increasingly computational and multi-representational focus of K-12 science education.

Tre effects of classroom gender dynamics on elementary level engineering education

1 Brian Gravel, Center for Engineering Educational Outreach, Tufts University, brian.gravel@tufts.edu 2 Erik Rushton, Center for Engineering Educational Outreach, Tufts University, erik.rushton@tufts.edu 3 Carol Kelley, Educator, Center Elementary School, Stow, Ma., dencala@berkshire.net 4 Sima Maitland, Educator, Center Elementary School, Stow, Ma., MaitlandT@aol.com Abstract – This work in progress is a study to examine the effect of gender dynamics in elementary level engineering education. Three experimental populations are created to investigate the impact gender has on attitude and performance in elementary aged students. Small groups in each population are required to design and build a contraption capable of meeting a defined set of requirements. To reinforce previous curriculum work, each group must utilize simple machines in their designs. Populations will be observed by educators and Tufts University GK-12 Graduate Fellows for motivation, selfdetermination, and overall interest in the project and classroom dynamics. This study will provide insight into appropriate gender make-up and structuring in the classroom to achieve successful integration of engineering concepts that male and female students can benefit from equally.