Service-Learning Engineering Design Activities at WesternMichigan University to Support K-12 STEM Education

摘要

The Engineering Design Center for Service-Learning (EDCSL) is a joint effort of the College ofEngineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) and the College of Education (COE) at WesternMichigan University (WMU). The mission of the EDCSL is to provide instructional devices andequipment, experiments, and training for use in K-12 classrooms to enhance Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Engineering and educationstudents, university faculty, and practicing K-12 teachers work together to design, build, analyze,and test age-appropriate classroom materials, develop and refine training for practicing and preserviceteachers, and provide opportunities for engineering and education students to see theimpact of their work in the larger community beyond the campus boundaries.This paper describes the ongoing EDCSL activities related to several of the student-engineeredprojects from CEAS senior capstone design courses and a freshman introductory engineeringcourse. These include projects for a classroom playhouse; an apparatus illustrating Archimedesprinciple; an apparatus to teach and experiment on electromagnetism, which has been throughseveral developmental iterations in the engineering design process involving students fromCEAS, COE, and K-12 teacher customers; and an interactive wind tunnel. Materials developedduring a joint workshop for practicing and pre-service K-12 teachers are discussed, where theparticipants worked with university faculty to develop their own STEM-related curriculummodules for classroom usage. Efforts continue to build and enhance a service-learningconsortium with academic units within WMU, other educational institutions, and communitygroups, including a project with Goodwill Industries to design a shipping container that meets itsoperational and user requirements, and a project to deliver after-school enrichment activitiesbased on engineering and technology for middle-school students.