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There are several outreach initiatives within the CEEO that provide opportunities to improve K-12 education.
These initiatives include:
- STOMP:
Pairing Tufts undergraduate and graduate students with Boston-area
teachers to help integrate engineering into existing lesson plans
- STOMP
Network: Collaborating with universities, industries, museums, and
other nonprofits to found and sustain STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and math) education outreach programs
- LEGO
Engineering Conferences: Bringing teachers together for full-day,
hands-on STEM learning experiences to inspire the integration of
project-based lessons in the classroom
History and Growth
STOMP
The
outreach division of the CEEO was established in 2001, with the
founding of the Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program (STOMP),
which has grown from 5 undergraduate engineering students mentoring
in 2 schools in 2001 to 40 students mentoring in nearly 20 schools in
2009. As the Tufts program grew, other universities and industries
adopted the STOMP model, establishing a STOMP Network, which is
centralized online at stompnetwork.org.
LEGO Engineering Conferences
In
2006, Lego education partnered with the CEEO to establish LEGO
Engineering Conferences. These are ideal for educators interested in
immersing themselves in one-day, hands-on STEM workshops, facilitated
by CEEO personnel and using LEGO Education robotics materials. Many
organizations have hosted these conferences throughout the world,
generating interest by local educators in STEM education. In 2008, 25
LEGO Engineering Conferences were held in locations ranging from
Arizona to Australia and Japan.
For more information on LEGO Engineering Conferences please visit the Conferences and Symposiums page.
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STOMP (Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program) is an opportunity for undergraduate, graduate, high school, and industry employees to promote engineering education in K-12 settings. The role of the STOMP fellow is to mentor/assist classroom teachers in the subjects areas of engineering and technology. In turn, teachers provide their expertise in the field of teaching to best implement engineering and technology curricula in the classroom.K - 12 students benefit through exposure to real-life engineering role models and to technology and engineering content.
Tufts University STOMP was the first program of its kind. The number of fellows and classrooms served has increased since Tufts STOMP began in 2001. During the 2008 - 2009 school year, Tufts STOMP employed 54 undergraduate and graduate students (32 female, 22 male) was involved in approximately 21 classrooms.
Tufts STOMP fellows are responsible for consulting with their classroom teacher to come up with an collection of 8 - 10 activities throughout the semester. These activities typically touch on engineering and technology content, but may also connect back to other topics students are learning about in their classroom. Fellows typically visit a classroom once a week for an hour for the duration of a semester.
Click here to continue to the STOMP network website for more information on this program. |
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Investigating Middle School Teachers' Engineering Subject Matter and Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Investigators
Morgan Hynes
Dissertation Committee
Barbara Brizuela & Judah Schwartz (Tufts University, Education Department)
Chris Rogers
David Crismond (City College New York)
Goals
The goal of this research is to investigate the subject matter knowledge(SMK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that middle-school math,science, and technology teachers use and develop as they teach an engineering unit. Understanding the knowledge base required to teach engineering at the middle-school level can guide teachers and teacher educators in preparing future engineering teachers.
Research Questions
• What subject matter knowledge do middle school math and science teachers use and develop as they teach an engineering unit focusing on the engineering design process?
• What engineering pedagogical content knowledge do middle school math and science teachers know, use,and develop as they teach the said engineering unit?
• How do math and science teachers connect their subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge the same and differently when teaching the said engineering unit?
Methodology
Six middle-school teachers were selected to participate in this study and all taught the same LEGO robotics-engineering curriculum developed by the researcher and collaborators. Each of the teachers previously participated in a summer teacher professional development workshop led by the researcher or collaborators. Data from these teachers was collected in the form of: (1) semi- structured interviews, (2)videotaped classroom observations, (3) hands-on think-aloud tasks, and(4) student projects.
Miles and Huberman's (1994) qualitative data analysis approach will be applied in the analysis of the interview, task, observation, and student project data. The approach incorporates different types of data into displays and matrices to help reduce and organize data for analysis. The data is then analyzed by noting patterns and themes, clustering data, making comparisons, and noting relationships and then organizing the data into conceptually ordered matrices and charts, which help tell the story. A complete content analysis of the curriculum and results from the previous pilot study (see Hynes, 2007b) provided the basis for the coding scheme that has been developed to this point. Both within-case analysis for each teacher and cross-case analysis among the teachers will be used to examine the data.
Implications
The results from this study may help inform engineering educators prepare teachers,develop teacher resources, and create curriculum that will foster students' knowledge and interest in engineering. The research may also provide valuable insight into methods of analyzing teacher knowledge and how it can be researched further. If nothing else a small handful of teachers and their students will experience the excitement of engineering with LEGO!
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Research currently being conducted at the CEEO revolves around its
core of graduate students who are part of the Math, Science,
Technology, and Engineering (MSTE) Education program at Tufts
University. The overarching focus of all the graduate students'
projects is improving technological literacy for all ages at all levels
of education, including teachers themselves. The CEEO typically has
five to ten active research projects at any given time, the majority of
which are funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF).
History and Growth
In order
to formally provide data about the efficacy of hands-on science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning activities, the CEEO
formally established its educational research division in 2004. This
launch coincided with the founding of the MSTE program within the
department of education at Tufts, which in 2003 had begun accepting
master's and Ph.D. track students to delve into rigorous education
research.
Tufts University
is just one of a few universities in the U.S. that has an
Engineering Education program, and is the only university in the U.S.
that has an Engineering Education program focusing heavily on the
primary-school-age group.
The CEEO and the MSTE program celebrated its
first doctoral graduate student in February 2009, and will continue to
hood students over the next several years as well as publish the
graduates' research results on the impact of engineering education on
the student, teacher, and curricula. |
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