COMPARISON OF TWO CURRICULUM MODELS FOR MAPPING ENGINEERING CORE CONCEPTS TO EXISTING SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS STANDARDS

摘要

There is increasing national concern that many young people entering the workforce in the United States may be ill-equipped to handle the economic, technological, and environmental challenges of the high tech workplace. The next generation labor force will need to be able to examine problems from a variety of contexts, create ideas from these contexts, analyze and synthesize information, and work collaboratively with a diverse set of colleagues - traits that are emphasized in the ABET engineering accreditation criteria, but unfortunately are not effectively honed by our K-12 educational system. To be effective, learning experiences should, at once: 1) be designed to target content and skill learning standards, and 2) incorporate 21st century contexts that include ample technology so that the experiences are relevant and valued by current and future students. The National Research Council, in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Teachers Association, and Achieve Inc. is leading a project to develop a "Conceptual Framework to Guide the Development of Next Generation Standards for K-12 Science Education". The draft Framework for New Science Education Standards, circulated in July, 2010, supports the increased use of inquiry and problem/project-based learning (PBL) as a means to improve science learning, and for the first time presents engineering disciplinary ideas and practices as integral to science learning and literacy. It leaves unresolved the question of how to incorporate engineering standards or core engineering concepts into a science curriculum that is already overly packed with existing science skills and content.