Objectives for Preservice Teachers
- Increase engineering content knowledge relevant to VA elementary science standards
- Develop, model, and implement learning activities that embed the EDP as a basis of lesson development
- Identify and model math and science concepts and learning objectives connected to their project team’s engineering topic
- Learn the engineering design process, and evaluate and reflect on how the EDP can be integrated into science instruction
- Identify barriers to engineering integration in the school context and explore options to overcome
Objectives for Engineering Students
- Develop deeper understanding of fluid mechanics concepts
- Identify the basic principles in chosen problems
- Explain to fluid mechanics concepts to others
- Increase motivation through connections with everyday life situations to applications of fluid mechanics
Working in small teams of 5-6, preservice teachers from an elementary science methods course (STEM 434) develop culturally responsive engineering lessons for local 4th graders in collaboration with engineering students from a fluid mechanics engineering course (MET 330). In preparation to teach elementary students, the interdisciplinary partners convey their subject area expertise through a peer teaching model. Engineering students serve as content experts in fluid mechanics concepts (e.g., pressure, drag, lift, fluid flowing through pipes or channels), while the preservice teachers serve as experts in lesson plan design and pedagogy.. Teams travel to local 4th grade classrooms to develop relationships with their elementary partners engaging the students in engineering concepts through an introduction to engineering lesson. Later in the semester, the 4th graders travel to ODU for “Engineering Day” where they participate in an original engineering lesson designed to meet their interests.
Example of an introduction to engineering lesson prepared for a school site visit.
Click on the image below to view the lesson in its entirety.
Example videos of interdisciplinary peer teaching sessions.
Click on each video below to view in its entirety.
Preservice Teachers Teaching Engineering Students
5E Instructional Model & Pedagogy
Engineering Students Teaching Preservice Teachers
Science & Engineering
Collaboration 3 Model for Spring 2020 (impacted by COVID-19)
In Spring 2020, teams produced virtual lessons as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Interactive engineering presentations were distributed to the teachers in the classrooms they visited earlier in the Spring 2020 semester in order to be completed remotely in 4th graders’ homes with common household items.
Click on each image below to view each virtual lesson in its entirety.
Learning Viscosity with Slime
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Wet n’ Wild
Viscosity Curiosity
