Desktop manufacturing systems such as 3D printers and computer-controlled die cutters have recently become affordable in schools.
Related Content
Publication
This entry describes technologies that support engineering education, such as 3D printing, computer-assisted design, electromechanical systems and instrumentation, and control systems.
This synthesis paper highlights projects funded by the National Science Foundation’s Innovating Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant program that are either primarily designed to support teacher learning or that incorporate teacher learning in a significant way.
An article in Make Magazine detailing the history of the Lab School, its collaboration with the Smithsonian, and the work of its students.
A new field of engineering called mechatronics combines mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science and makes all three disciplines accessible to surprisingly young students.
Surface area is consistently identified as a curriculum standard for K-12 students and it regularly appears on national and international assessments. Recently, many schools began acquiring digital fabrication and advanced manufacturing equipment.
Desktop digital fabrication technologies provide students with access to concrete and virtual manipulatives, which have both been identified as useful instructional tools to support student learning in a variety of different content areas, such as mathematics.
The Laboratory School for Advanced Manufacturing (Lab School) was established to identify and develop effective educational practices for advanced manufacturing technologies in schools. The Lab School is grounded in the premise that students can learn through the design and fabrication process
The report includes examples drawn from projects in the national ITEST program which seeks to ensure the breadth and depth of the U.S. STEM workforce.
News
On Monday, September 12, U.S. Secretary of Education John King visited to the Laboratory School for Advanced Manufacturing in Charlotteville, VA as the first stop on the Opportunity Across America 2016 Bus Tour.
Based on the promising results of ITEST project The FabLab, the Commonwealth of Virginia provided seed funding to design a laboratory school for advanced manufacturing. Buford Engineering Design Academy, a laboratory school for advanced manufacturing has recently launched
Visionaries like Glen Bull, a professor of instructional technology at the University of Virginia's (UVA) Curry School of Education, are using 3-D printing systems to change the way teachers present science concepts and, in turn, how students learn and retain the material.
The FabLab Classroom: Preparing Students for the Next Industrial Revolution in an ITEST project based in Virginia where elementary students and teachers have the opportunity to discover principles of design and fabrication.
Instruments
The STEM Semantics Survey measures student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as well as interest in STEM careers. The survey is comprised of five scales each with five items measured on a 7-point scale.