Learning STEM by Design
Engineering’s iterative approach helps middle school teachers develop engaging and effective new lessons.
By Kristen Billiar, Jeanne Hubelbank, Thomas Oliva, and Terri Camesano
We all know that even our best students find it difficult to sit still for an hour and passively absorb the content of our brilliant lectures. So why aren’t all of our learning activities “active” and “student-centered?” Well…it’s hard to develop effective, problem-based learning experiences.
Now consider trying to develop inquiry-based lessons to help middle-school students learn difficult STEM concepts – such as understanding the relationships between weight, mass, gravity, volume, and density – while preparing them for standardized tests. Further, imagine teaching these lessons within tight constraints of standards, time, and cost, with limited background and confidence in engineering. It’s a daunting task, and middle school is a crucial intervention point for encouraging students to pursue engineering. To meet this challenge, we developed a structured process to help teachers develop lesson plans with confidence that the activities will be innovative, relevant, and within the constraints of the teacher and classroom environment.
Recognizing the parallel between curricular design and engineering design, we thought that the formal engineering design process (EDP) would be a useful framework for aiding K-12 teachers in the development of STEM lessons. When creating lessons, teachers continually assess the task at hand, plan an approach, assess their students’ progress, and adjust their approach accordingly. For a more structured approach, many educators turn to models of instructional design (ID) that are similar to the EDP. However, those models lack the EDP’s emphasis on creating various approaches (multiple alternative designs) from which the best is selected by careful weighing against curriculum objectives and meeting of constraints. Further, as generating a solution often requires iteration, revision is an explicit step in the EDP and, we believe, an essential step in lesson planning.
This approach to curriculum design was piloted in a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Our RET program provides opportunities for teachers to practice research in collaboration with college faculty. In the program, funded over a three-year period, 15 middle school teachers received in-depth exposure to an area of biomedical engineering through a six-week, hands-on, inquiry-based research laboratory experience involving bioengineering design. In addition, the teachers utilized the EDP to develop design projects to teach difficult STEM concepts in their classrooms while boosting students’ learning and motivation. In doing so, the teachers also became more comfortable with the EDP themselves.
While our article featured one particular lesson, “Design of a Ligament Replacement for a Youth Knee Injury,” other teacher-developed lesson topics included the design of lighter helmets, exercise equipment for astronauts, and a filter for potable water. The bioengineering focus also encouraged empathy and helped engage female students who often are not motivated by building bridges and catapults. For example, they created devices to assist disabled students in completing everyday tasks like opening a soda can, telling time, and sharing a meal with a friend. Each of these learning activities is the product of a teacher using the EDP to explain such STEM concepts as adaptive design, the need for assistive devices, why bone density changes depending upon loading, how kidneys function, or human joint mechanics, as well as engineering design itself. Teachers noted that their students were engaged, intellectually and actively, with the EDP lessons.
By providing structure, requiring the development of multiple alternative solutions, and calling attention to classroom constraints, the EDP serves as an effective process for guiding teachers toward more interactive and engaging project-based lessons. With the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards, which stress the integration of the scientific and engineering fields, many science teachers will be including engineering design in their curricula. Using the EDP to meet these new needs, teachers can provide productive learning experiences for their students.
Kristen Billiar is a professor of biomedical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and fellow of ASME. Jeanne Hubelbank is a program evaluation and assessment consultant in education. Thomas Oliva is a middle school technology teacher in Worcester, Mass. Terri Camesano is assistant dean of engineering and a professor of chemical engineering at WPI.
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