Workshop to Help Teachers Use Engineering Design in Science Classes
June 11, 2012
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - More than 40 teachers from Indiana elementary schools will attend a Purdue University workshop this month to learn how to incorporate engineering design activities into their science classrooms.
The workshop, which will be June 11-15 and June 18-22, is presented through the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) project. The project is co-directed by Alyssa Panitch, professor of biomedical engineering, and Brenda Capobianco, associate professor of science education.
SLED, a National Science Foundation Math Science Partnership project that links Purdue with Indiana school districts, is focused on improving science learning in grades 3-6. Engineering design provides a hands-on way for students to learn science by making products to meet specific needs.
New Indiana elementary-level academic standards as well as national science education standards call for students to understand and use the engineering design process. The SLED project is developing materials, teaching approaches and building a research base for meeting the new standards.
SLED participants from Purdue are the colleges of Education, Engineering, Science and Technology and the Discovery Learning Research Center. Teachers attending the workshops will come from the Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Taylor (Kokomo) and Plymouth school districts.
The teachers will test new classroom design activities developed by Purdue science, technology, engineering and mathematics faculty and develop plans for implementing the activities with their own students during the 2012-13 academic year.
More information on SLED is available at https://stemedhub.org/groups/sled
- Chell Nyquist
November 24, 2015
Higher education's ability to prepare students to compete in the 21st century workplace faces increasing scrutiny. Existing and ingrained structures of higher education, particularly in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, are not set up to provide the skill development in three key areas necessary for student success in the knowledge economy: communication, teamwork and divergent thinking, a new book published by Purdue University Press suggests. Addressing this issue by formulating solutions within diverse academic settings is the focus of "Transforming Institutions: Undergraduate STEM Education for the 21st Century." Edited by Gabriela C. Weaver, Wilella D. Burgess, Amy L. Childress and Linda Slakey, the book brings together chapters from the scholars and leaders who were part of the 2011 and 2014 conferences led by the Discovery Learning Research Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.Read Full Story