Developing Resources for Aligning K-12 Engineering Educationto State Education Standards in Texas

摘要

This article discusses the efforts of the Texas Tech University College of Engineering toprovide engineering resources, content, and training for K-12 teachers that meetstandards mandated by the Texas Education Agency. In the summer of 2004, we broughtin a consultant to work with nine area public school teachers (elementary through highschool) to align our Pre-College Engineering/Architecture Academy (PEAP) curriculumwith the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). One result of the workshop is aneight volume set of Engineering Resources for the TEKS and a plan to vertically andhorizontally align engineering curriculum within a group of schools in area of Lubbockwith predominate populations of low-income African-American and Hispanic students.To support this Engineering Resource Guide and to help teachers introduce engineeringconcepts and skills to their students, TTU Engineering students act as mentors andfacilitators in the K-12 classrooms. These student mentors work in the classrooms ofteachers that have participated in a Pre-college Engineering/Architecture AcademyProgram (PEAP) professional development workshop. The benefits are three-fold: 1) Theteacher has someone with engineering knowledge and TTU Engineering faculty contacts,in the classroom; 2) The K-12 students have role models they can relate to; and 3) TheUniversity students get mentoring experience, community service experience, and thesatisfaction of making a positive contribution as role models to students who otherwiserarely have an opportunity to interact with the college community. This paper will becoauthored by members of the team that participated in this program, and will look at thedevelopment of the K-12 Engineering Resources from the perspectives of the publicschool teachers, the student-mentors, and from program administrators in the TTUEngineering Dean’s Office.