This study examines the effects of integrated science, technology, and engineering (STE) education on second-, third-, and fourth-grade students' STE content knowledge and aspirations concerning engineering after validation of the measures. During the 2009-2010 school year, 59 elementary school teachers, who attended a week-long engineering teacher professional development (TPD) program, implemented STE integrated lessons in schools in a large, southcentral U.S. school district. At the beginning and end of the school year, the Student Knowledge Tests (SKTs) and the Engineering Identity Development Scale (EIDS) were administered to 831 students either in classrooms with the STE integrated lessons (treatment) or without (control). Item and confirmatory factor analyses provided sufficient reliability and validity evidence of the SKTs. Significant differences between treatment and control groups for all three grades on the post-SKTs indicate the impact of STE integration on students' content knowledge. The EIDS showed no significant group differences on the academic subscale, while the engineering career subscale showed that treatment group students scored significantly higher than control group students in all three grades. Those significant changes in the treatment group in knowledge and aspirations are strong evidence for the potential impact of STE integration. 380 Volume 114 (8) Effects of Integrated STEM Education on Students School Science and Mathematics 381 Effects of Integrated STEM Education on Students
Background Incorporating environmental sustainability (ES) into engineering education is vital to both individual engineering students' success and to the profession as a whole. This study explores attitudes, conceptions, and misconceptions about ES that students bring to the classroom. A promising framework of design-based research is applied to gauge how instructional innovation can impact student attitudes, conceptions, and misconceptions.Purpose Two questions guided this research: What knowledge and attitudes about ES, particularly those pertaining to engineering, do first-year engineering students have? How can an engineering module focused on life cycle assessment in a first-year engineering course affect students' conceptual understanding to prepare them to develop a robust appreciation of environmental issues and ES in engineering?Design/Method A quantitative research design in the context of a comparative designbased research study was utilized to examine first-year engineering students' environmental awareness coming into the program and changes in their conceptions of ES following their participation in a module that focused on life cycle assessment (LCA).
Results/ConclusionFollowing the participation in the LCA module, the intervention was able to address certain misconceptions and support students' shift to deeper understanding about ES. Students' perceptions regarding the complexity of LCA did not change. Including multifaceted issues such as LCA in the teaching of engineering students seems beneficial.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.