Teaching Elementary School Teachers Basic Engineerng Concepts
- Conference
- Location
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Honolulu, Hawaii
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2007
- Start Date
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June 24, 2007
- End Date
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June 27, 2007
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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K-12 & Pre-College Engineering
- Page Count
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7
- Page Numbers
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12.1354.1 - 12.1354.7
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--2623
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/2623
- Download Count
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346
Paper Authors
Marilyn Barger University of South Florida
MARILYN BARGER is the Executive Director of FL-ATE, the Florida Regional Center for Manufacturing Education housed at Hillsborough Community College. She earned a B.A. in Chemistry at Agnes Scott College, and both a B.S. in Engineering Science and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of South Florida. She has over 16 years of experience in developing curriculum in engineering and engineering technology and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Florida. She is currently working with Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School to develop curriculum content for its Center for Mathmatics and Engineering.
Richard Gilbert University of South Florida
RICHARD GILBERT is a professor of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida. He has developed educational materials for ISA (Instrument Society of America), AVS (American Vacuum Society) Science Educator’s Workshop, and the National Science Foundation through a grant to develop high school science and math curriculum content. He is currently working with Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School to develop curriculum content for its Center for Math and Engineering.
Robin Little Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary School
ROBIN LITTLE is the Engineering Coach at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education and a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of South Florida. Her experiences include over 23 years in early childhood classrooms and seven years as a teacher resource and trainer. Robin has curriculum writing experience, including a nationally published teacher resource book integrating science and literature with other areas of the curriculum.
Chuck Parsons Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary School
CHARLES PARSONS is the Science Coach at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. He earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from the University of South Florida. His experiences include over 30 years teaching in Kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms and 1 ½ years as a resource teacher. Chuck has curriculum writing experience and has presented at various state and national venues.
Kim Parsons Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School
KIM PARSONS is the Reading Coach for Kindergarten through Third grade at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from Florida Atlantic University and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of South Florida. Prior to her position as Reading Coach, Kim’s experience included fifteen years as a classroom teacher in grades one through five. Kim has presented at various county and state venues.
Pat Van Driessche Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School
PAT VAN DRIESSCHE is a fourth grade teacher at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. She earned a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and her M.S. in Specific Learning and Behavior Problems from the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Her teaching experiences include over 30 years teaching first through sixth grade and seven years in exceptional student education. Pat has presented various district trainings and is currently involved in the development of the integrated curriculum at Jamerson.
Debbie O'Hare
DEBORAH O'HARE is a 4th and 5th grade teacher at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from Florida State University and has National Board Certification. In 2006, she was one of the finalists for teacher of the year for her district. Her experiences include over 21 years as a classroom teacher in all grades. Her main focus has been in the intermediate grades. Presently, she†loop with her class from 4th to 5th grade, thus keeping them for two years. Deborah has experience writing curriculum using the Backwards Design Process and has worked with the state to create, revise and edit the math questions used on the statewide test for fifth grade.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
mathematics and science, and how this knowledge base can easily strengthen all of the “traditional” lessons typically used by teachers in other elementary schools in our district.
Introduction
With this background in mind, how do you get elementary school teachers to teach their students engineering concepts integrated throughout their curriculum in a developmentally appropriate way? The success of Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering Program, Pinellas County, FL, is largely built upon the track we took in answering this question. Over three years ago as we began to build an engineering program for our brand new school, we knew that teacher professional development would be the key to our success. At that time, there were a few model options. Although a “turn-key” curriculum was not available, there were some commercial products that did provide an engineering element for elementary education. Such packages have the attractive component that “training” would be provided by the vender and the classroom materials were provided. We examined this approach and concluded that the product versatility was limited and the training provided would not generate the depth and breadth we needed for the content integration we desired.
We also elected not to base our professional development on the NSF G-K12 program resources. Although the excellent examples from this program as presented at ASEE conferences do provide curriculum content and professional development related to that specific engineering context, they do not meet our universal needs nor do they strengthen the faculty as an integrated teaching unit. Ultimately, we decided that our overall expectations for our curriculum place an overall demand on our faculty. This requires a continuous improvement approach that would give a substantial number of teachers, our core collection of teachers across all grade levels, the confidence to implement our lessons and guide new teachers as well.
As an initial step in the creation of our professional development plan, we determined the resources that would or could be available. Fortunately, the Tampa Bay region of Florida has two engineering and technical educational resources, the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida, and Florida’s NSF supported Regional Center for Advanced Technological Education (FL-ATE) that could and did provide important guidance and assistance. In addition, the Pinellas County School District provided the resources and flexibility for us to develop Professional Learning Communities at each grade level. The MSAP grant supported intensive short courses for our teachers at the beginning and end of the school year. Finally, the school district helped us optimize our learning time and energy by allowing us to focus all of our professional development activities on our needs while simultaneously meeting most of the general professional development requirements imposed on teachers in the district.
Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School’s Professional Development Plan
The Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School blend of these resources has lead to a professional development plan for our teachers that has three operational levels; the formal educational level, the “just-in time” educational level and the professional learning community level. In our formal educational level, we have partnered with the College of Engineering to develop a series of three graduate level courses designed for our teachers. Although enrollment
Barger, M., & Gilbert, R., & Little, R., & Parsons, C., & Parsons, K., & Van Driessche, P., & O'Hare, D. (2007, June), Teaching Elementary School Teachers Basic Engineerng Concepts Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2623
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