STEM High School: Does multiple years of high school engineering impact student choices and teacher instruction?

摘要

K-12 engineering programs are rapidly increasing around the nation, particularly at the high school level. Integrating opportunities for high school students to repeatedly practice engineering skills has been suggested to increase students' interest in pursuing a career in engineering. However, little research exists to show the real impacts on the students' attitudes towards engineering and where they end up after high school. Also, as the number of programs increases, so does the need for qualified teachers to instruct those courses. The majority of K-12 teachers do not have a background in engineering; more times than not, they do not know what an engineer does, nor do they have knowledge of the different disciplines of engineering, thusly making it difficult to effectively encourage their students to pursue engineering as a career. One challenge for schools wanting to better implement the "E" in STEM is the training required of teachers to effectively teach engineering in the classroom.