CLICK. BUILD. LEARN

ASEE Prism, Sep 2007 by Mathias-Riegel, Barbara

A digital K-12 engineering curriculum expands with an emphasis on quality and fun.

Whoosh-whoosh, whoosh-whoosh. The sound of their heartbeats startled the 12 North Carolina sixth graders, who had expected more of a tick-tick noise.

More surprising, perhaps, was how the students produced the sound- using an electrocardiograph they built from a kit and heart monitor circuits that they applied to their own bodies.

The moment marked the culmination of an after-school course in engineering concepts and heart anatomy conducted by undergraduate and graduate Techtronic Fellows at Duke University.

And the experience won't be limited to these 12 pupils at Rogers-Herr Middle School in Durham, N. C. The Fellows plan to make it available to teachers across the country through the digital library collection of TeachEngineering (TE).

This is just one example of how TE has been growing in robust and interesting ways since its debut in January 2005.

TE is a multiuniversity partnership that has developed K-12 engineering education curriculum modules that are standards-based, free and available over the Internet (www.teachengineering.com). It aims to equip teachers with lessons in science, math and engineering that are creative, exciting and proven to work. Funded by the National Science Foundation, TE has partnered with ASEE, which assists with marketing and dissemination.

The North Carolina heart monitor exercise offers the kind of hands-on approach TE favors-and one that kids seem to enjoy.

"By building the inexpensive EKG and heart monitors, the students learned to extract biological signals in a real world context to help them learn about their own bodies- and they like that," says electrical engineer Gary Ybarra, director of Duke's outreach program Engineering K-Ph. D.

TE began about five years ago with a core team of engineering faculty members from the University of Colorado-Boulder, Duke University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Colorado School of Mines, as well as an information systems faculty member from the business college at Oregon State University.

To date, the team has published some 400 activities and 200 lessons covering 30 curricular areas. Impressive as that is, the TE team feels it is not enough.

"We want other people to publish their lessons and activities in the TE digital library so that it will grow and become a resource that is populated by people across the nation," says Ybarra, a member of TE's core team. "That is our long-term goal."

FORMING PARTNERSHIPS

Jed Lyons, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of South Carolina, proudly claims to be "the first external guinea pig" to publish in TE. Lyons requires his graduate teaching fellows to develop several lesson plans in summer workshops for middle-school teachers. From those workshops, Lyons selects the best to share with TE. One lesson chosen shows students how to make stereo speakers out of a yogurt cup, coil and a magnet connected to amplifiers. Another illustrates an example of how civil engineers must deal with weight and support. In it, kids use two bathroom scales with a two-by-four between them to explore how the length of the board, or putting different people on the board, affects weight measurements. More lessons are definitely on the way, Lyons says.

Other institutions planning to partner with TE include the University of Maine, University of Virginia and North Carolina State University. TE is encouraging all schools, associations and organizations with interest in K-11 outreach to jump on the bandwagon. According to TE team project leader Jacquelyn F. Sullivan of the University of Colorado, there's something in it for everyone. "Many of us in the core group have partnerships with our regional school districts where we have an already-established, trustful relationship with teachers who would be able to classroom-test the curriculum. And of course, fix it."

With the curriculum's growth comes the challenge of quality control and efficiency. Paul Klenk, the TE project director for Duke, works closely with the Techtronic Fellows to prepare potential lesson plans using the TE template. Quality is always a priority during the preparation process, which also provides an opportunity to find faster and easier ways to publish in order to help potential new partners join TE, Klenk says.

"We have just developed a list - a rubric - of what the criteria for publishing in TE should be - all the things you would expect to have in a well-written lesson plan," Klenk says. "As we bring in new partners - as well as our own material - we want a more formal review process similar to a journal article. One or two different (outside) reviewers have to look at it. We intend for this to be a very quality resource."

And what's in it for new lesson plan contributors? For one thing, they don't have to worry about developing a Web site; TE takes care of that. A Web site is also the best possible vehicle for dissemination, a typical requirement for NSF grants. "We want it to be a badge of honor to have published with TE," says Klenk.