Overview

The K-12 Engineering Discovery Program is a comprehensive initiative aimed at preparing young people for a lifetime of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) engagement. This program introduces students to the principles of engineering, nurturing application of their creativity, problem-solving skills, and preparing them for the challenges of the 21st century. Through hands-on projects, interdisciplinary learning, and mentorship opportunities, students will bridge the gap between their existing STEM curriculum and engineering application.

Through working with and observation of a number of K-12 programs, we have noticed that scalability of effective programs is disastrous. We believe we have developed a solution which is sustainable, and will inspire the next generation of STEM leaders. Our vision to develop a holistic, scalable STEM education program spanning from preschool to adult education and develop networks of real-world STEM experts willing to share some brief time to mentor young students.

The program starts at the preschool level and continues through high school graduation.

Much of this program was developed through lessons learned teaching science and engineering in afterschool programs and in the mentoring program at Belvedere Elementary School. Belvedere is an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program school that structures and engages students from preschool to 5th grade in hands-on, inquiry-based learning.

Rather than dictating what students should learn, our program empowers them to explore their interests and discover the relevance of STEM concepts in their lives. We have found that enthusiasm for STEM education is infectious and by creating custom curriculum based on community needs we can get a gain above one in these programs.

We have also found that a collaborative approach to teaching, which often involves guest mentors and hands-on projects, fosters a dynamic learning environment where students thrive. From building machines to creating Arduino shields, we encourage students to apply their knowledge to their own real-world problems, sparking curiosity and driving innovation. We feed children’s curiosity to break down these complicated topics and supportive learning skills as students show initiative in their learning. Further, encouraging the students to teach what they have learned is both a powerful motivator and vehicle to learn the subjects deeply.

This pedagogical approach and learning cycle used in International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program school (IB PYP) schools consistently demonstrate that the best way to learn something deeply is to teach it to others. This surprisingly rare approach is advocated by IB PYP schools around the world and researched in a variety of ways in Harvard’s School of Education Project Zero projects.

Introduction

The Engineering Discovery Program team has been involved in variety of K-12 STEM programs. Our involvement has ranged from volunteer mentorship to formal teaching positions though assisting with program development. Some of these programs have been amazing. The most impressive programs stimulated curiosity and cultivated a desire to learn and apply STEM concepts by sparking children’s interests. By studying these programs, we have developed a teaching method to equip mentors with an exceptional ability to inspire and engage students across grade levels.

The challenge facing these amazing programs is expansion beyond the circle of the super-dedicated people who created them. Time and time again, the push to institutionalize them to reach a larger number of children leads to ineffectiveness. Careful observation has led us to some key but blunt conclusions:

1. The most effective programs are those where the teachers played an active role in developing the curriculum.

2. Programs that follow step by step activities are not effective at generating enthusiasm in the children.

3. Programs where the instructors went offsite to learn the curriculum were far more effective than programs where the instructors were simply given course materials to teach supplemented with a few hours of instruction.

4. In general teachers know how to teach math and science and do it well.

5. In general teachers are not trained to teach engineering concepts and they simply omit that essential portion of STEM. They are teaching STM. In the long run, this severely limits the usefulness of these programs because students do not know how to carry what they’re learning to practical application and making their lives better.

6. Teachers' ability to stimulate student interest far outweighed deep technical STEM knowledge in moving toward the goal of lifelong interest in science and engineering.

7. In general teachers are not stimulating student interest.

8. Collaboration, especially collaboration from distant geographies – most notably international collaboration – is of high interest and immeasurable social value beginning at the Kindergarten level and continuing through post graduate stages of life.

9. Finally, the best learning occurs when the students are curious about the subjects. If we can stimulate infectious curiosity in the people developing the curriculum, the people teaching, and the students, the rest follows easily and naturally.

Our aim is to institute a training program to teach how to develop curriculum specific to the community's needs and interests and apply it to improve the life of the students and their communities. We aim to develop a cadre of Early Learning Mentors (ELMs) who can provide an early learner’s STEM program that will stimulate student interest far beyond large cookie-cutter programs.

One practical way of motivating the students is to relate lessons with events in their environment. This will immediately motivate some students to develop a strong interest and will spread to other students. This leads to the first hallmark of the Engineering Discovery Program.

Program Hallmarks

If we can stimulate curiosity in the people developing the curriculum, the people teaching, and the students, the rest follows easily and naturally. Grounded in this premise, the following seven hallmarks of the K-12 program are critical to success.

Hallmark 1 – ELM Cadre Development

The Early Learning Mentors (ELM) cadre development forms the basis for program strength and expansion. The development process draws connections between language, culture, community, industry, and current events to form a whole-of-community approach. Some examples of ELM cadre projects are highlighted below.

• Provide classes sponsored by local industry

For example, if your city is famous for producing elevators, teaching a class in elevator design and manufacturing or developing new elevator technology to assist with disabled community members provides student and community impact. In the case of the Early Learning Program, elevator companies already developing these products would have students participate in the development, marketing, and distribution. This is a win-win for the community and sponsors. We believe this can be done at the 5-12 level.

• Provide after school activities in the community

For example, if your city has a culture of violence, offering community opportunities outside of school hours provides parents and caregivers, students, and the community new outlets. An example of this is to create technology for baseball practice measuring the speed of the pitchers’ pitches. We believe this can be done at the 5-12 level.

• Provide curriculum aimed at current interests and concerns of the community

For example, if there has been a recent earthquake, you could teach a class to design, manufacture, and distribute an early warning earthquake detection system. We believe this can be done at the 3-12 level. This could be an international collaborative effort between cities of high earthquake risk, offering additional cross-country cooperation. We believe this can be done at the 3-12 level.

• Provide curriculum aimed at recent events

For example, if you live in Baltimore, you might provide projects on how to clean up and rebuild bridges. This could be done by building scaled models. We believe this can be done at the K-12 level.

• Provide multilingual classes and build community tools

For example, if a community has multilingual students, you can teach some of the classes to students in their native language. An attractive project is to have students develop translation technology to enhance lives within their community. We are currently developing a curriculum to be piloted in the latter half of 2024 in Fairfax County Public School mentoring program and believe this can be done from grades 3-12.

Hallmark 2 – Reduction of Standardized Exercises

Institutionalized step-by-step programs will be replaced with customized curriculum developed by the ELMs teaching the program. As part of the training program, the ELMs learn how to design and teach exercises that satisfy students’ curiosity and questions rather than following step-by-step institutionalized exercises. They will learn to quickly develop curriculum of strong interest to their students.

We will do this by first showing them how our most successful exercises were developed in cooking-show style, followed by facilitated development of example projects followed by the ELMs developing two exercises on their own with peer review, concluded by full development of these exercises ready for use with their students. When they complete the program, they will be equipped with two completed projects and the talent to develop future exercises. All exercises developed in this program will be published and made available freely to the BUILD network.

Hallmark 3 – ELMs Training Program

Much of this program is taught via example-exercise-practice-feedback. Delivery of the content is often done cooking-show style. Key features of the cooking show are highlighted below.

Cooking Show Teaching Style

1. Demonstration: The teacher or coach performs the steps or set of tasks for the students, providing a clear visual and verbal explanation of what they are doing and why.

2. Narration: The teacher or coach talks through each step as they perform it, explaining the critical techniques, strategies, and reasons for specific actions.

3. Engagement: The action is dynamic and engaging, typically employing a blend of interactive elements, personal anecdotes, and/or humor.

4. Sequencing: Tasks are broken down into a manageable sequence of steps, making complex processes easier to understand and follow.

5. Immediate Feedback: The teacher or coach can address mistakes and questions in real-time, providing immediate feedback and clarification.

6. Replication: After the teaching or coaching has concluded, students are often encouraged to replicate the process themselves, applying what they have learned in a hands-on manner.

Hallmark 4 – Strengthening Current STEM Education

Continue current STEM education. This is working well and there is no need to change it. But we do need to reinforce it with application. Let’s apply the science with engineering.

Our observation is that many programs have excellent STEM classes and there is no need to change them. What we do want to happen is for our program to offer hands-on application of what the students have learned, are learning, and are about to learn (this follows our rule of three).

Hallmark 5 – Stimulating Student Interest

Experts will teach the course and ELMs will teach sessions and receive candid feedback following a closed-loop SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) feedback criteria. Interested ELMs are invited back to provide SMART feedforward criteria for future ELMs.

Hallmark 6 – ELMs Training in Practice

This program is modeled after the University Mentor program in that it is taught by example, role playing, and hands-on interactive learning.

Pre-academic Application

Through this process, we let the students see what upper classmen can do after they learn a subject. For example, middle school students present what they’ve made to elementary school students. Seeing the application gives them incentive and enthusiasm to work hard in their challenging classes. For example, the elementary school students see what they can do if they know algebra. This method is powerful for difficult subjects that seem abstract, and it isn't obvious why you need to learn these challenging concepts.

Live Academic Application

By this method, we let the students apply what they are learning while they are learning this material in their academic classes. This method is powerful for subjects that lend themselves well to bottom up-design where they can build the first stage, test it, get it working, improve it, and then move on to the next stage, rinse and repeat.

Post-academic Application

Utilizing this approach, we let the students apply what they learned in their academic classes. They show it off to lower classman. By applying it shortly after they learned it, the lesson is reinforced. This method is powerful for subjects that are quickly forgotten after they are learned.

Hallmark 7 – Collaborative Relationships with Other Communities and Programs

The challenge is to create a mentor cadre who are capable and excited about developing tailored projects. This isn’t easy, but it is possible. This is what the BUILD K-12 Mentor program teaches. The BUILD K-12 Mentor program teaches you how to design a project based on your community’s needs, stimulating interest and enthusiasm.

Program Details

The K-12 Engineering Discovery Program emphasizes five key objectives. These objectives guide each component or phase of learning from pre-K through the 12th grade.

Program Objectives

1. Introduce Engineering Concepts: Provide students with foundational knowledge of engineering principles and practices that lead to the application of science through interactive learning experiences. Application. Trade-spaces. Testing. Optimization.

2. Foster Creativity, Innovation, and Application: Encourage students to think creatively, explore innovative solutions to problems, apply the solutions to solve the problems, and develop a growth mindset towards engineering challenges.

3. Promote Interdisciplinary Learning: Emphasize the importance of collaboration across disciplines by integrating science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEM) concepts in project-based learning.

4. Develop Critical Thinking Skills: Cultivate students' ability to analyze problems, generate solutions, apply the solutions, and evaluate outcomes critically, preparing them for lifelong learning and adaptability.

5. Provide Bidirectional Mentorship and Guidance: Offer mentorship opportunities with industry professionals, educators, and engineering enthusiasts to inspire and guide students in their engineering journey.

Program Components

Preschool Engineering Fun (Ages 0 – 5)

• Introduction to basic engineering philosophy of doing the best you can with what you have through young children’s books. These storybooks encourage playful experimentation and building things to stimulate interest in STEM.

• Explanations books are provided to enable parents answer their kids' questions when reading the book. It is the goal that interested children will steal the parent's book and read it cover to cover – a talented engineer is born. For an example, please see The Cat in the Box Explained, ISBN 9780692325964.

Elementary Engineering Explorations (Grades K-5)

• Introduction to basic engineering concepts through hands-on activities and interactive projects. Learn how to carry an idea from concept to building to testing through application.

• Exploration of simple machines, structures, circuits, and design thinking processes.

• Integration of STEM concepts into interdisciplinary learning experiences and cooperative teamwork.

Middle School Engineering Adventures (Grades 6-8)

• Engaging projects focused on robotics, environmental engineering, energy systems, and sustainable design.

• Introduction to computer-aided design (CAD), programming, and digital fabrication techniques.

• Collaborative challenges promoting teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills.

High School Engineering Expeditions (Grades 9-12)

• Advanced engineering projects addressing real-world problems in areas such as manufacturing, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering, renewable energy, and aerospace.

• In-depth exploration of engineering disciplines through specialized tracks or electives.

• Mentorship opportunities with industry professionals, university researchers, and engineering organizations. Opportunities to become mentors.

Community Engagement and Outreach

• Collaboration with local businesses, universities, and community organizations to provide students with real-world connections and hands-on experiences.

• Participation in engineering competitions, science fairs, and community events to showcase students' achievements and inspire others.

Program Implementation

1. Curriculum Development: Design and develop a curriculum framework aligned with national and state standards, incorporating hands-on projects, inquiry-based learning, and STEM and STEAM integration. Add to traditional programs including cradle-to-grave application including requirement definition, engineering models, prototype development, first article demonstration, and manufacturing.

2. Teacher Training and Professional Development: Provide educators with training and resources to effectively implement the engineering curriculum, facilitate project-based team learning, and support student inquiry and exploration.

3. Resource Acquisition: Secure funding and resources for equipment, materials, and technology tools necessary for hands-on engineering projects and activities.

4. Partnerships and Collaboration: Forge partnerships with industry partners, universities, engineering organizations, and community stakeholders to enhance students' learning experiences and provide mentorship opportunities.

5. Assessment and Evaluation: Implement assessment tools to measure students' progress, engagement, and achievement in engineering learning outcomes, and use feedback to continuously improve the program.

Program Approach

1. Overall Approach: Given the large scope of a national program weighed against limited available resources, it is necessary to take an efficient approach. There are many fine science K-12 STEM programs upon which we can build. There is a growing number of engineering programs, although they are not advertised well. In this light we propose partnering with existing programs.

2. Existing Program Examples: Two programs we have identified as excellent candidates for a partnership are the First Robotics Program and Former NSA Engineer Mark Rober's Crunch Labs Boxes. These examples are illustrative only and are not currently affiliated with the BUILD program.

Algebra – Relativity BUILD style

Let’s imagine an elementary school student who gets curious about magnets and see where it could lead us.

Two children come to their teacher asking how magnets work. She begins by answering in the “standard way” explaining that each magnet has a north pole and south pole and like poles repel and unlike poles attract. She hands them magnets and lets them play with them and fill out a chart of attraction and repulsion.

The kids come and ask another question, “We went home and played with the magnets and showed them to our parents, brother, and friends. But we want to know how they work. Why do they repel and attract?”

The teacher tells them that is hard question that and she doesn't know the answer. But it is a good question and she will try to find the answer.

She then sends an email to the BUILD Program. A response comes matching her to a BUILD Mentor who then comes to class to answer the question.

The mentor explains that there are two things they need to know to understand how magnets work. They already know the first one – attraction and repulsion. He explains that no has figured out why this is true – we've just observed that it will happen. Maybe one of the students in this room will be the first one to figure it out! The second thing is that when someone is moving very fast, they appear to be smaller to someone standing still then they do to the person moving. This is called relativity and a man named Albert Einstein figured this out in 1905. When was that? That's when your grandparents' grandparents were in school. If you'll trust me on these two things, I can explain how magnets work. It'll take about 20 minutes. Is that OK?

The students say “yes” and we now cut to the end of the class. The mentor asks the students if they have understood and they say “yes”. He then lets them know that this is the basis for how everything magnetic works such as a motor and demonstrates a motor. They then ask if he will show them how to design and build motor. He tells them that that requires something called algebra and when they learn algebra in a few years, he will come back and tell them.

The following Monday the teacher asks them how their weekend was and asks them if they have any questions. The students ask, “Will you teach us algebra?”

The teacher teaches them algebra and they asked the mentor to come back. He did and he taught them the next level. He also mentioned in passing that the way to learn something very deeply is to teach it. The students ask their teacher if she would set up a class where they could teach the link between magnetism, relativity, algebra and motors. She gets a few teachers and interested students and her students elementary school students teach them motor theory relativity.

We conclude by explaining that this story is not fiction. This is what happened in one of the mentoring programs with a couple students at Belvedere Elementary school in Falls Church Virginia. We want this to happen again. And again.

Conclusion

The K-12 Engineering Discovery Program aims to ignite students' passion for engineering, empower them with essential skills and knowledge, and prepare them to become innovative problem solvers and leaders in the field of engineering. By providing engaging learning experiences, mentorship opportunities, and real-world connections, the program seeks to inspire the next generation of engineers and shape the future of STEM education.

Summary: What’s in this for you?

The K-12 program gives you a huge headstart to working in a technical field, especially if you want to create things. The program is designed to start create Nobel laureates.