Creating engineering design integrated science units and lessons

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) require science teachers to integrate engineering design into science lessons. However, many science teachers need support to create such lessons because they lack preparation in engineering. Similarly, most pre-service teachers enter teacher preparation programs without preparation in engineering. Furthermore, the NGSS do not provide templates for creating engineering design integrated science (EDIS) lessons and activities. To address this problem in our science teacher education program, we have created templates for creating EDIS units and lessons. In this paper, we describe the EDIS templates, outcomes, and suggestions for using the templates in science teacher education. The templates were first introduced into our science methods course in 2015. Our research shows that pre-service teachers developed skills for creating EDIS units using these templates. Some EDIS units created by our pre-service teachers using these templates have been published for other teachers to use. Students who received EDIS instruction from our pre-service teachers in schools improved their understanding of science concepts and engineering design process. Therefore, these templates can be used in other teacher education programs to prepare teachers in creating EDIS units, lessons and activities.