While engineering outreach activities are numerous, many are unrelated to active areas of research in geotechnical engineering and fail to meet the needs of K-12 educators. Graduate students often practice communicating their research to technical audiences, but have less opportunities to communicate research to the public. A graduate course in engineering education was developed to address both of these needs. After introducing students to engineering education design and practice, students develop an educational module related to their research that meets relevant educational standards (e.g., next generation science standards, common core standards). Towards the end of the course, students implement their designs in a K-12 classroom, evaluate the results, and incorporate lessons learned into their final design. This paper provides an overview of the graduate engineering education course and details the development, implementation, and evaluation of a bio-inspired foundations module developed as a course project. The module was used to introduce a middle school class to concepts in bio-inspiration and sustainability through a hands-on example of active bio-inspired geotechnics research. The paper also includes a discussion of the impact of the course on graduate student development of teaching and communication skills and the alignment between K-12 educational standards and geotechnical engineering concepts.
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