MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF INTEGRATING ENGINEERING INTO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM ON STUDENTS' SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DESIGN CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

摘要

Engineering education and engineering education teacher professional development programs are becoming more common at the elementary level. However, there are no well-developed instruments designed to assess the impact of students' knowledge in subjects that engineering is thought to improve, such as the engineering design process, science, and technology. To address this need, student knowledge tests for grades two, three, and four were developed to measure knowledge of engineering design, science, and technology, both before and after an engineering curriculum was implemented by teachers who attended an engineering education professional development program. This paper reports the progress and methods of two iterations of instrument development for the student knowledge tests. A total of 386 students in grades 2 to 4 from the year 2008-09 cohort and 636 students in grades 2 to 4 from the year 2009-10 cohort participated in the study. Based on item analysis results, the tests were revised and administered to a new group of students (2009-10 cohort). Item analysis of the pre-items flagged several potential revisions dependent upon forthcoming results of the post item analysis for year two. Implications include redesign of the student knowledge test for the academic year 2010-11, and the inclusion of more items for engineering and technology subscales to improve reliability. Additional implications include support for the use of engineering as an integrative context for science and engineering learning in K-12 classrooms.