Engineering student outcomes for grades 9-12: in the midst of an extended back-to-basics movement with high-stakes testing, being able to improve student achievement in, and attitudes toward, STEM subjects would provide a meaningful service to education and perhaps cause an increase in the diversity of those students who would like to pursue STEM-related careers after high school and college.(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics )

Publication: The Technology Teacher

Publication Date: 01-APR-08

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COPYRIGHT 2008 International Technology Education Association

Introduction

In the fall of 2004, the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) secured funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in order to infuse engineering design into the schools through technology education. As a basic step in reaching this goal, the researchers, in cooperation with NCETE, designed a study to answer the following specific research question, the findings and implications of which are the focus of this article:

What are the engineering student outcomes that prospective engineering students in Grades 9 through 12 should know and be able to do prior to entry into a postsecondary engineering program?

For the purpose of answering this question, statements of outcomes of student achievement were sought through a modified Delphi study.

Infusing Engineering Design into Technology Education

In order to improve the level of acceptance that technology education can gain in the public schools as well as to better represent the essence of engineering as it relates to technology for the improved achievement of students, Wicklein (2006) proposes infusing engineering design into the technology education curriculum more deliberately. He outlines broad categories for the infusion of engineering design into technology education. In terms of those broad areas of engineering that should be infused into the curriculum he includes, "... narrative descriptions, graphical explanations, analytical calculations, physical creation" (p. 7). He also describes courses that might represent a technology education curriculum that infuses engineering design. The courses include, "Introduction to Technology, Engineering Graphics, Research and Design, Engineering Applications" (p. 6). He includes as essential in the curriculum: optimization, analysis, and prediction. Wicklein also implies that students should take all of the science and mathematics courses that are available in high school. (See also the National Academy of Engineering, 2004.) Wicklein (and the National Academy of Engineering) has, in effect, provided a rationale for the study described herein. In order to infuse engineering design into the curriculum, the related engineering design concepts have to be identified.

The Dearing and Daugherty Modified Delphi Study

There have been several studies to identify engineering outcomes for high school students. A recent study by Dearing and Daugherty (2004) used a modified Delphi technique that they conducted with technology teachers, technology teacher educators, and engineering educators to identify engineering outcomes for high school preengineering students. The purpose of the study was to identify those concepts that are necessary to teach high school students in order to prepare them for postsecondary engineering education, while preserving the mission of teaching technological literacy. Dearing and Daugherty developed a predetermined list of concepts based on information from Project Lead the Way, Principles of Technology, Standards for Technological Literacy, the American Society of Engineering Education, and others.

Participants were to decide if a concept should be included in a curriculum or not included in a curriculum. Fifty-two concepts on their list met the criterion for consensus and were retained. Will the findings of the present study be similar to those from the Dearing and Daugherty study? There were many similarities and differences.

Modified Delphi Study

Like the Dearing and Daugherty study, this outcomes study used a modified Delphi approach that started with preexisting outcome items selected from national standards projects, focus groups, and additional resources. Delphi studies are systematic, instrument-based processes for helping panels of participants reach agreement on issues. This modified Delphi study extended for three rounds of inquiry in Phase One, with 34 participants as of Round 2...

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