Board 163: Engineering Identity of 2nd-Grade Girls (Work-in-Progress)

Evelyn Hanna; Suzanne Tracy

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Poster Session
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42514
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/42514
Download Count: 133

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Paper Authors

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Evelyn Hanna Kent Place School

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Dr. Evelyn Hanna currently serves as the Director of Curricular Innovation and STEM at Kent Place School. She also teaches computer science, engineering, and mathematics courses. Prior to joining Kent Place in 2018, Dr. Hanna worked at Princeton University and Rutgers School of Engineering to advance in- and out-of-classroom STEM opportunities for all students. She has received over $3M in support of her work from the National Science Foundation and other non-profit organizations. Dr. Hanna is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers and a book, Teacher Discourse Community: What it reveals about knowledge of teaching mathematics. She is a graduate of Rutgers University, where she earned her doctorate in mathematics education and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Dr. Hanna’s research and teaching explore the intersection of STEM content knowledge, affect, and identity with the goal of ensuring excellence and equity in STEM.

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Suzanne Tracy Kent Place School

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Suzanne (Sue) Tracy has over 25 years of teaching experience and is currently the Computer Science and Engineering Department Chair and the Computer Science and Engineering Instructor for first through sixth grades at Kent Place School in Summit, NJ. Sue is also the Robotics Team Coach for the Primary School and Co-Facilitator of the PS Girls’ Leadership Institute at the school. Sue enjoys working with students to solve problems using the engineering design process. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from The College of New Jersey and her Master of Arts degree from Kean University. Recently, Sue became a Certified Engineering is Elementary Teacher Instructor.

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Abstract

As part of a larger project to transform the K-12 STEM curriculum scope and sequence, a Computer Science and Engineering (CS&E) Department was formed to support the growth of course offerings at a small-sized school for girls. At the Primary School level, the pre-transformed curriculum focused on block-based coding and robotics. Building on this strength, the underlying goal of the transformed program was to infuse engineering throughout the curriculum with a focus on cultivating students’ identities as engineers and their engineering habits of mind.

After a review of existing engineering curriculum options, the authors selected relevant modules from the Engineering is Elementary program. Modules were selected based on alignment with the Primary School CS&E, math, science, and literacy learning objectives and with the school’s mission to cultivate confident, intellectual, and ethical girls who advance the world. One particular unit that was used with the 2nd grade class was about chemical engineering.

In this unit, the students listened to a story entitled Michelle’s MVP Award. In this story Michelle, an artistic girl with Down Syndrome, uses play dough in a creative way to help her ice hockey team fund a trip. After reading the story, the second graders explored and tested various ways to fabricate play dough using just three ingredients: water, salt and flour. The students examined states of matter in the form of solids and liquids as they used chemical engineering skills to combine the play dough materials together. The students quickly realized that not only are the materials important, but the steps of the process used to combine the materials are often very important as well.

At the conclusion of the unit, students were asked to draw a chemical engineer. Students responded to the prompt: “What is a chemical engineer? Draw a picture of a chemical engineer at work. Label your picture.” If the paper is accepted, we will provide an analysis of the drawings using the modified Draw-An-Engineer Test theoretical framework (e.g. Carr & Diefes-Dux, 2012). Preliminary analysis indicates that a majority of the students drew female engineers with some drawing what appeared to be self-portraits. Students’ labels seem to reflect a robust definition of the engineering profession.

Reference Carr, R. L., & Diefes-Dux, H. A. (2012, June). Change in elementary student conceptions of engineering following an intervention as seen from the Draw-an-Engineer Test. In 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (pp. 25-299).

Citation
Format

Hanna, E., & Tracy, S. (2023, June), Board 163: Engineering Identity of 2nd-Grade Girls (Work-in-Progress) Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42514

TY - CPAPER
AB - As part of a larger project to transform the K-12 STEM curriculum scope and sequence, a Computer Science and Engineering (CS&amp;amp;E) Department was formed to support the growth of course offerings at a small-sized school for girls. At the Primary School level, the pre-transformed curriculum focused on block-based coding and robotics. Building on this strength, the underlying goal of the transformed program was to infuse engineering throughout the curriculum with a focus on cultivating students’ identities as engineers and their engineering habits of mind.

After a review of existing engineering curriculum options, the authors selected relevant modules from the Engineering is Elementary program. Modules were selected based on alignment with the Primary School CS&amp;amp;E, math, science, and literacy learning objectives and with the school’s mission to cultivate confident, intellectual, and ethical girls who advance the world. One particular unit that was used with the 2nd grade class was about chemical engineering.

In this unit, the students listened to a story entitled Michelle’s MVP Award. In this story Michelle, an artistic girl with Down Syndrome, uses play dough in a creative way to help her ice hockey team fund a trip. After reading the story, the second graders explored and tested various ways to fabricate play dough using just three ingredients: water, salt and flour. The students examined states of matter in the form of solids and liquids as they used chemical engineering skills to combine the play dough materials together. The students quickly realized that not only are the materials important, but the steps of the process used to combine the materials are often very important as well.

At the conclusion of the unit, students were asked to draw a chemical engineer. Students responded to the prompt: “What is a chemical engineer? Draw a picture of a chemical engineer at work. Label your picture.” If the paper is accepted, we will provide an analysis of the drawings using the modified Draw-An-Engineer Test theoretical framework (e.g. Carr &amp;amp; Diefes-Dux, 2012). Preliminary analysis indicates that a majority of the students drew female engineers with some drawing what appeared to be self-portraits. Students’ labels seem to reflect a robust definition of the engineering profession.

Reference
Carr, R. L., &amp;amp; Diefes-Dux, H. A. (2012, June). Change in elementary student conceptions of engineering following an intervention as seen from the Draw-an-Engineer Test. In 2012 ASEE Annual Conference &amp;amp; Exposition (pp. 25-299).

AU - Evelyn Hanna
AU - Suzanne Tracy
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 163: Engineering Identity of 2nd-Grade Girls (Work-in-Progress)
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/42514
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42514
ER -