Tamara J. Moore

A framework for posing open-ended engineering problems: model-eliciting activities

Integrating more engineering contexts, introducing advanced engineering topics, addressing multiple ABET criteria, and serving under-represented student populations in foundation engineering courses are some of the opportunities realized by the use of a new framework for developing real-world client-driven problems. These problems are called model-eliciting activities (MEAs), and they are based on the models and modeling perspective developed in mathematics education. Through a NSF-HRD gender equity project that has funded the development, use, and study of MEAs in undergraduate engineering courses for increasing womens interest in engineering, we have found that the MEA framework fosters significant change in the way engineering faculty think about their teaching and their students. In this paper, we will present the six principles that guide the development of an MEA, detail our motivation for using the MEA framework to construct open-ended problems, and discuss the opportunities and challenges to creating, implementing, and assessing MEAs.

STEM Integration: Teacher Perceptions and Practice.

To gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs about, perceptions of, and classroom practices using STEM integration, a multi-case case study was conducted with three middle school teachers. These teachers were purposefully selected from a pool of teachers involved in a year-long professional development module on STEM integration to represent science, mathematics and engineering teachers. This study addresses the following research questions: (1) What are teachers’ beliefs about and perceptions of STEM integration after a yearlong teacher professional development training? and (2) What is the connection between beliefs about and perceptions of STEM integration and teachers’ classroom practices? Data collection consisted of document analysis, classroom observations, and interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Findings from the case studies suggest that (1) the problem solving process is a key component to integrate STEM disciplines, (2) teachers in different STEM disciplines have different perceptions about STEM integration and that leads to different classroom practices, (3) technology is the hardest discipline to integrate in these cases, and (4) teachers are aware of the need to add more content knowledge in their STEM integration.

Considerations for Teaching Integrated STEM Education

Quality Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is vital for the future success of students. Integrated STEM education is one way to make learning more connected and relevant for students. There is a need for further research and discussion on the knowledge, experiences, and background that teachers need to effectively teach integrated STEM education. A support, teaching, efficacy, and materials (s.t.e.m.) model of considerations for teaching integrated STEM education was developed through a year-long partnership with a middle school. The middle school was implementing Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology curriculum. The s.t.e.m. model is a good starting point for teachers as they implement and improve integrated STEM education.

Developing model-eliciting activities for undergraduate students based on advanced engineering content

Are you interested in creating open-ended, client-driven, realistic engineering tasks for undergraduate students that will introduce them to the world of engineering early in their academic careers? With the support of the National Science Foundation, model-eliciting activities (MEAs) were created and implemented with first-year engineering students at Purdue University. These tasks are open-ended modeling problems that introduce advanced engineering content yet are suitable for undergraduate engineering students. In this paper, we will give a personal account of the research and development of the nano roughness MEA. We will focus on the attainment of the six principles that guide the development of an MEA and the main development challenges: identifying aspects of an advanced engineering topic suitable for undergraduate students, making the task realistic, creating the need for team interaction, making the model reusable in similar situations, and preparing for task implementation in the classroom.

A Framework for Quality K-12 Engineering Education: Research and Development

AbstractRecent U.S. national documents have laid the foundation for highlighting the connection between science, technology, engineering andmathematics at the K-12 level. However, there is not a clear definition or a well-established tradition of what constitutes a qualityengineering education at the K-12 level. The purpose of the current work has been the development of a framework for describing whatconstitutes a quality K-12 engineering education. The framework presented in this paper is the result of a research project focused onunderstanding and identifying the ways in which teachers and schools implement engineering and engineering design in their classrooms.The development of the key indicators that are included in the framework were determined based on an extensive review of the literature,established criteria for undergraduate and professional organizations, document content analysis of state academic content standards inscience, mathematics, and technology, and in consultation with experts in the fields of engineering and engineering education. Theframework is designed to be used as a tool for evaluating the degree to which academic standards, curricula, and teaching practicesaddress the important components of a quality K-12 engineering education. Additionally, this framework can be used to inform thedevelopment and structure of future K-12 engineering and STEM education standards and initiatives.

Important student misconceptions in mechanics and thermal science: Identification using Model-Eliciting Activities

As any engineering faculty member teaching undergraduates knows, students possess a wide variety of misconceptions about fundamental engineering concepts. In the thermal sciences, there are numerous misconceptions about heat, energy, and temperature; mechanics students hold misconceptions about inertia, angular velocity, and energy. This is complicated by the fact that we possess many years of everyday experiences with energy flows, forces, and kinematics. Due to previous experiences, it is often difficult to repair these misconceptions - simple classroom lecturing often fails to instill correct conceptual knowledge. In order to provide real-world context, we are developing model-eliciting activities (MEAs) to help repair misconceptions in dynamics and the thermal sciences. An MEA is a client-driven problem that requires student teams to develop an engineering model or procedure. This approach creates an environment where students value abilities beyond using the traditional prescribed equations and models. During this process, we hypothesize that rich discussion and model re-formulation will help students recognize and repair misconceptions, and that the real world context will help them remember these critical concepts.

Assessment of Team Effectiveness During Complex Mathematical Modeling Tasks

ABET requires that engineering graduates be able to work on multi-disciplinary teams and apply mathematics and science when solving engineering problems. One manner of integrating teamwork and engineering contexts in a first-year foundation engineering course is through the use of model-eliciting activities (MEAs) - realistic, client-driven problems based on the theoretical framework of models and modeling. This study analyzes student team self-reflections of team functioning while engaged in model-eliciting activities as they compare to a researchers observations of the team effectiveness. Both the self-reflections and the observations measure team effectiveness using the following qualities: interdependency (cooperation among team members to accomplish a task), goal-setting (team sets outcome goals and sub-goals to accomplish tasks), and potency (shared belief among team members that they can accomplish their goals)

Building Up STEM: An Analysis of Teacher-Developed Engineering Design-Based STEM Integration Curricular Materials

Improving K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has a priority on numerous education reforms in the United States. To that end, developing and sustaining quality programs that focus on integrated STEM education is critical for educators. Successful implementation of any STEM program is related to the curriculum materials used. Educators increasingly recognize the challenge of finding quality curriculum materials for integrated STEM education. In this study, 48 teachers participated in a year-long professional development program on STEM integration, and they designed 20 new engineering design-based STEM curriculum units. Each STEM curriculum unit includes an engineering challenge in which students develop technologies to solve the challenge; each unit also integrates grade level appropriate mathematics (data analysis and measurement) and one of the three science content areas: life science, physical science, or earth science. A total of 20 STEM integration units were assessed using the STEM Integration Curriculum Assessment (STEM-ICA) tool. Comparisons among the STEM units showed that the context or the engineering activities in physical science focused STEM units were more engaging and motivating comparing to the authentic contexts used in life science and earth science focused STEM units. Moreover, mathematics integration and communicating mathematics, science, and engineering thinking were not found to strongly contribute to the overall quality of the STEM units. Implications for designing effective professional development on integrated STEM education will be discussed.

A student task model method for assessing and improving a Model-Eliciting Activity

Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs) are a class of interdisciplinary problems designed to simulate authentic, client-driven situations in classroom settings. MEAs allow teachers and researchers to observe student development of conceptual models by requiring students to make their models explicit through design-test-revise cycles. Here, we present a method for assessing the design of MEAs and the learning that occurs by applying a task model to student work products. We examine the relationship between the number of deep strategies employed and the usefulness of the mathematical model produced in solving an MEA in an undergraduate engineering course. A task model was created to represent the areas for strategy deployment, as well as to specify shallow and deep strategies utilized by student teams in these areas. Student work products were coded according to this model and data was analyzed using non-parametric statistical analyses. By explicitly modeling the problem-solving strategies, optimal pathways for task success were highlighted, providing information for instructors on valuable feedback for students engaging in the activity, as well as validation of holistic assessments of student work. This analysis also has implications for determining the specific learning that occurs during a complex problem-solving activity.

Special session - model-eliciting activities: Motivating students to apply and integrate upper-level content in engineering

This interactive session is for engineering faculty interested in curriculum reform, real-world engineering problem-solving aimed at upper-level content, and addressing ABET Criteria. Participants will take part in a Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA) group problem-solving session and learn the fundamental principles for developing an MEA. Participants will gain an understanding of the process involved in making advanced engineering content accessible to undergraduate students through a well-formulated MEA. They will also learn about new and innovative ways to integrate ethics into the classroom and use problem-solving as a means to elicit misconceptions.