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Teaching K-12 Engineering using Inquiry-Based Instruction

Glenda T. Kelly, Mary Hebrank, Gary A. Ybarra and Paul A. Klenk

Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC

Introduction

Since 1999, the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University has placed 95 undergraduate and 33 graduate Engineering Teaching Fellows in 14 elementary schools and five middle schools in four counties in North Carolina serving 6,500 students. These Fellows assist partnership teachers with the creation and delivery of lessons and activities that integrate meaningful math, science and engineering exercises into all areas of the Standard Course of Study. Based on outcome assessments of training needs for these Teaching Fellows and recommendations from the National Science Education Standards on best practices for teaching K-12 science, the Pratt School of Engineering created the MUSIC Program (Math Understanding through Science Integrated with Curriculum). MUSIC is a GK-12 track 2 program funded by the National Science Foundation. The MUSIC Engineering Teaching Fellows receive intensive and paired teacher/fellow training in inquiry-based instruction. The Pratt School of Engineering, partnered with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center, GlaxoSmithKline, Progress Energy and nine North Carolina school systems, has also developed a K-8 teacher training initiative known as TASC: Teachers and Scientists Collaborating. TASC will train 7,560 teachers by 2007. Beginning in the fall of 2004, TASC trainers began providing the more intensive, ongoing training for Duke Engineering Teaching Fellows in inquiry-based instruction. This paper describes the evolution of changes made in the Duke Engineering Teaching Fellows (ETFs) training program based on formative and summative evaluation of the last five years of the Duke ETF program, provides a brief definition of inquiry, an overview of outcomes studies of inquiry- based instruction applied to teaching K-12 science and engineering concepts, and describes formative outcomes of our new inquiry-based training program

Brief Outcomes from past Duke Engineering Teaching Fellows Programs

Since 1999, the Duke Engineering Teaching Fellows Program has placed graduate/undergraduate Teaching Fellows in 19 schools in four counties. Fellows provided: assistance/expertise for teachers in design/delivery of hands-on activities integrating science and engineering into the NC Standard Course of Study; “Science Boxes” to collect and answer student questions; and “Science Nights,” “Discovery Days,” and “Win a Day at Duke” contests. Initial bi-annual fellow training workshops for the 1999-2003 Duke-NCSU Engineering Teaching Fellows Program were taught by teachers from partnership schools and covered Bloom’s Taxonomy, learning styles of special-needs children and behavior management but offered only minimal opportunity for Teaching Fellows to experience being in the role of a “student” and immersion in inquiry--based

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Hebrank, M., & Kelly, G., & Klenk, P., & Ybarra, G. (2005, June), Teaching K 12 Engineering Using Inquiry Based Instruction Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14710