Great Read for Science Teachers!

I feel that this is a great article explaining how a teacher took the engineering standards out of the new Next Generation Science Standards and applied them in a week-long day camp with fir... See More

I feel that this is a great article explaining how a teacher took the engineering standards out of the new Next Generation Science Standards and applied them in a week-long day camp with first and second graders. She gives the different activities that she worked on with the students and how it aligned to the 5E model of teaching. She did not give specific lesson plans within the article, which for this particular publication, I feel was appropriate. She did however give enough information that a science teacher could more than likely replicate a similar type of engineering experiment with his/her classroom. She also included the students’ reactions to each experiment and also included the type of assessments used for each specific activity. It seems as though the students both had a great time and also learned an important part of science, which is the definitions of both engineers and technology. However, she did not stop with the students learning the definitions of these two words. Instead, the students explored what it would actually be like to work as an engineer and to find different technology to solve problems. This was a great article and was full of information that could be used within the regular classroom, not just within a camp type setting.

Engineering Encounters Review

This article was broken down into the 5E model of teaching, and each step was clearly identified. The article focused on a camp for first and second graders with a focus in engineering. The ... See More

This article was broken down into the 5E model of teaching, and each step was clearly identified. The article focused on a camp for first and second graders with a focus in engineering. The author wrote the article almost as if it were a lesson plan, identifying what the main activity was for each step in the 5E model, what the students did, and what the activity was helping the teacher or student understand, with everything relating back to engineering and how it can, in fact, be taught in elementary schools. Although the specifics in the article was tailored to a camp setting, it is an engineering experience that could be used in a general education classroom. The article included some pictures of the activities being discussed that the author used in her experience, which helps to visualize what the students were thinking or doing. Everything within the article was clearly connected back to the Next Generation Science Standards, and the performance expectations, along with the three-dimensions connected with the expectations, were clearly identified. This article would be a great read for teachers trying to decide how to first introduce engineering into their general education classroom.