Simulation Technology and Student Engagement

Publication

An authentic learning environment with the integration of technology can effectively engage students and improve their academic performance. Technology can support learning situations that relate to real life, and provide opportunities for inquiry and collaboration, fostering engagement. This paper will provide details of an authentic learning environment that utilizes flight simulation software to engage middle school students in the learning of several math and science concepts. Active learning lessons were developed using missions flown on the flight simulator. The pedagogical approach was

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Mapping Students’ Engineering Processes with Design Zones

Publication

The engineering design process (EDP) can be a wonderful tool to nurture creative problem-solving abilities, prepare students to tackle problems with intentional planning, and encourage learning from failures. Many lesson plans and instructional strategies are guided by the EDP (Hill Cunningham, Mott, and Hunt 2018). Visual representations of the EDP often show a set of actions arranged in a cycle. For example, many of you are probably familiar with the Engineering is Elementary graphical aid that shows five labeled steps, “Ask, imagine, plan, create, improve” (Museum of Science, Boston 2020)

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Embedding Life Design in Future Readiness Efforts to Promote Collective Impact and Economically Sustainable Communities: Conceptual Frameworks and Case Example

Publication

This is the first of two sequential papers describing the design and first-year implementation of a collaborative participatory action research effort between Sociedad Latina, a youth serving organization in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston University. The collaboration aimed to develop and deliver a combined STEM and career development set of lessons for middle school Latinx youth. In the first paper, life design and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals are described in relation to the rationale and the design of the career development intervention strategy that aims to help middle school

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Make Way for Trains! Holding Back Earth Materials

Curricular Materials

A Community-Connected Elementary Geotechnical Engineering Unit In the “Make Way for Trains” unit (MWT), students explore key concepts of geotechnical engineering in the context of a train track expansion for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA): as railway corridors are widened, the sloping earth material surrounding the tracks must simultaneously support existing structures and not fall onto the tracks. Developed specifically for the Boston, Massachusetts, context, the unit begins with a look at how MBTA workers employ science and engineering for the geotechnical support for

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Motion & Design of Accessible Playgrounds A Community-Connected Elementary Science & Engineering Unit

Curricular Materials

In the “Motion and Design of Accessible Playgrounds” unit, 3rd grade students will explore core ideas of balanced and unbalanced forces, changes in motion, and interactions between magnets. They will have an opportunity to extend and refine these ideas as they address engineering and technology standards during an accessible playground design challenge. This teacher guide begins with a navigation guide that overviews each day of the unit, focus questions, NGSS and Massachusetts (MA) standards, and science and engineering practices (SEPs), followed by the detailed lesson plans and required

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SageModeler

Curricular Materials

Simple Systems Modeling Free, web-based, and open-source software to engage students in systems thinking through designing, building, and revising models. An easy to use drag-and-drop tool for basic diagramming of the structure of a system or creation of static equilibrium or time-based dynamic models.

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Exploring Waves Through Sound

Curricular Materials

Each of the lessons linked below can be explored independently or within a larger unit of sound/waves. The order below is a recommended learning sequence in exploring the basics of soundwaves. This lesson sequence uses the anchoring phenomenon of a deaf person claiming he can feel music. Throughout each lesson, students will have to use evidence from their activities to explain this phenomenon.

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Math and Science Learning Modules Using a Flight Simulator

Curricular Materials

FLY HIGH YOUR MATH AND SCIENCE SKILLS The project, Fly High Your Math and Science Skills, aims to introduce math and science teachers to an exciting and innovative teaching approach that will have a significant impact on the performance of their students. The project team consisting of faculty from mathematics, aerospace engineering, mathematics education and an instructional designer (consultant), has developed learning modules for 7th and 8th grade students using a flight simulation environment. The project team conducted one-week summer professional development for teachers at Tuskegee

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The development and validation of the goal orientation and learning strategies survey (goals-s)

Instruments

This article outlines the construction and validation of the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S). This 84-item survey was designed to measure students’ motivational goal orientations and their cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Results of first-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the factorial validity of the GOALS-S scales measuring students’ goals and strategies (with goodness-of-fit indices in post-hoc models ranging from .908 to .981). In addition, higher order CFAs (HCFAs) support hierarchical structure of the GOALS-S scales (with goodness-of-fit

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