Work in progress: Designing an innovative curriculum for engineering in high school (ICE-HS)

Abstract

The projected job growth for Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) professionals is expected to be 22% as reported by the Occupational Outlook quarterly in spring 2007. According to the National Science Foundation, only about 17 percent of U.S. college graduates earned a degree in subjects related to STEM; this falls well below the world average of 26 percent. In order to fulfill this projected need, state governments have initiated STEM education programs in high schools across the country. The challenge faced by high school administrators and teachers is not only to develop a new set of modules for engineering, but also to imbed innovative pedagogy while implementing them. Moreover, they are faced with the task of identifying the scope and sequence of engineering education at a high school level. Traditionally, high school students were introduced to engineering during summer camps at a college of engineering. The summer camp or out-reach activities were university developed and delivered. Seldom did they last more than a few weeks. Exemplary vendor-sold curricula such as Project Lead the Way and Infinity provided the scope and sequence for teaching engineering in high school. They also assisted schools in the form of training, teaching materials, and web support. Agencies such as NSF and ASEE have developed engineering education websites such as egfi.org, teachengineering.org, and cadrek12.org that are not utilized by the vendor-sold curricula. Expense and investment in teacher implementation training time remain important factor in implementing vendor- sold curricula. The ICE-HS presents a step-by -step methodology for developing a four- year high school engineering curriculum framework based on backward design and systems thinking approaches. The ICE-HS is structured around two major objectives: attracting the high school students to STEM and providing a flexible engineering foundation. It does not prescribe specific modules but offers integration with the other disciplines such as language/arts and traditional science courses. The ICE-HS is currently being piloted in a charter high school, Da Vinci School for Science and the Arts. The ICE-HS uses the modules developed by several sources such as NSF and ASEE and provides a framework that allows the school to customize its delivery for appropriate grades and levels. The main contributions of this framework are the defined scope and sequence and the outcomes and rubrics that utilize an array of publicly available resources for teaching engineering throughout the high school. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.