Teachers as Engineers

As Learning Specialist for K–5 Engineering Education at UNC Greensboro, I helped bring Engineering is Elementary, a curriculum from the Museum of Science, Boston, to Title I schools in Guilford County, North Carolina. Through the museum-funded Seed Leadership Team project, led by Dr. Heidi Carlone, we prepared 20–30 teachers at a time in a week-long summer institute and coached them through the school year. The work also led to a published study of students’ experiences with engineering.

A week of learning like students

I led sessions on the engineering design process, pairing each step with a hands-on activity. Teachers then worked in small groups through a full Engineering is Elementary unit, testing materials and using evidence to design, build, and improve their solutions.

For most, the science was familiar but the design process was new. Working through it themselves helped them grow more comfortable teaching it.

How the unit builds toward the design challenge

1. Prep lessonTechnology in a bagStudents discover that everyday objects are technologies someone designed.
2. Lesson 1Saving Salila’s TurtleA storybook introduces a girl in India who designs a filter for her turtle.
3. Lesson 2Who are environmental engineers?Students spot sources of air, water, and soil contamination in a community.
4. Lesson 3Exploring filter materialsGroups test screen, paper filters, and sand and gravel on three kinds of dirty water.
5. Lesson 4Designing a water filterGroups plan, build, score, and improve a filter for “Mystery water.”

The water filter challenge

In the water filter unit, teachers tested materials like screen, cheesecloth, coffee filters, sand, and gravel. They used their findings to decide how to layer a filter, then evaluated each design against the same criteria.

Try a simplified version below, with notes on what teachers did and what I coached for at each step. I built it for my portfolio to give a sense of the experience; it isn’t Engineering is Elementary material and doesn’t use real test data.

The challenge connected to students’ lives, too. In a 2017 UNCG profile of the program, one teacher described how the unit coincided with the Flint, Michigan water crisis, prompting a class discussion about water challenges around the world.

From the institute to their own classrooms

After the institute, our team worked closely with teachers as they brought the units into their classrooms, adapting them for each school and class.

From teacher learning to student learning

Alongside the professional development, I worked as a research assistant on three studies that followed the curriculum from teachers into classrooms.