Incorporating Engineering in Middle School Science

The overarching goals of this study are to introduce engineering concepts to middle school students through digital fabrication, and increase science competency while stimulating interest in STEM careers. This pilot study incorporates digital fabrication, engineering design, and visualizations into a comprehensive unit that integrates hardware, software, curricula, and a collaborative space. The engaging nature of these activities may improve student attitudes toward STEM disciplines and increase the likelihood that students will take advanced STEM coursework and choose STEM careers, as they feel the success of completing hands-on activities supported by visualizations in content that might otherwise be overwhelming. Fabrication activities are a vehicle that may help deliver science content about electricity in a group setting that is approachable for students who may be less likely to pursue STEM activities. Three eighth-grade classes (n=57) participated in hands-on science lessons that incorporate technology to deepen their understanding about electricity using modeling, simulations, and measurement probes. The researcher triangulated data, including student interviews, analysis of student work samples, pre-/post tests, and the STEM Semantics Survey. Data may help provide practical ways to enhance interest and skills necessary to encourage participation in STEM activities, courses, and careers. This paper focuses on student attitudes, as measured by the STEM Semantics Survey. The paired samples t-test failed to reveal a statistically significant difference between the mean overall pretest and overall posttest totals. INCORPORATING ENGINEERING IN MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE 3 In order to meet growing demands for a competitive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce, education must adapt to reflect the skills necessary to be successful in these fields and students must be encouraged to maintain interest in these disciplines. Digital fabrication offers the opportunity to bring activities that are more like STEM professions to students than traditional classroom instruction. Similarly, the engaging nature of these activities may improve student attitudes toward STEM disciplines and increase the likelihood that students will take advanced STEM coursework and choose STEM careers. Digital fabrication involves creating physical objects from a digital design. Though digital fabrication has been a mainstay of professional engineers for decades, the next generation of 2D and 3D personal digital fabricators makes digital fabrication in schools feasible for the first time (Bull & Groves, 2009). This can facilitate the introduction of engineering design in science classes, as required by the proposed Next Generation Science Standards (National Research Council, 2011), through rapid prototyping. The ease of creating, making, and revising ideas can encourage an iterative process that is an important part of engineering design. Fabrication activities are a vehicle that may help deliver science content about electricity in a group setting that is approachable for students who are less likely to pursue STEM activities. Data gathered from preliminary activities using digital fabrication may help provide practical ways to enhance interest and skills necessary to encourage participation in STEM activities, courses, and careers. This study may help the researcher better understand instructional practices that might be used to improve the use of technology in educational settings. INCORPORATING ENGINEERING IN MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE 4