Expanding sixth-grade youth's understanding of engineering through critical multilingual journalism

This four-year project will develop, enact, and study a technology journalism curriculum to support sixth grade students' knowledge and practices in engineering. The curriculum focuses on solving engineering problems related to weather, such as flooding. Synthesizing expertise in technology and communication education, the project will engage students in investigating, designing, and communicating engineering knowledge about technological systems to their community. Students will learn engineering as they construct and convey messages about weather-related incidents, such as flood mitigation technologies, for a wide range community members. Students will learn to think critically about these technologies by analyzing which technologies will best meet the needs of different users and different kinds of infrastructure. Resulting curricula and professional development workshops for teachers will employ strategies to engage learners with a range of linguistic practices, including multilingualism, to enable all students to engage in engineering design practices. Over the course of three design-based research cycles with the proposed curriculum unit, the team will generate evidence-based theory about how a technology journalism approach influences engineering learning among sixth-grade youth. The project aims to answer three research questions: (1) What is the evolution of student learning outcomes, including their practices of engineering and communication, their ideas about weather-related technologies, and their perceptions of the value of engineering and technical communication for the community?; (2) What community resources do students draw on as they participate in the curriculum?; and (3) What is the influence of curriculum resources and teacher facilitation moves on student learning outcomes? To answer these questions, the research team will use qualitative methods that include video recordings of lesson enactments and interviewing teachers and students. The team will analyze these data using techniques from interaction analysis and discourse analysis. Beyond the seven teachers and 920 students directly engaging in the curriculum during the four-year project, the project's Community Tech Press website will share the finalized curriculum unit and its supporting materials with the national engineering education community. This dissemination intends to enable teachers across the country to adapt this approach to create curricula that engages all students in solving locally-relevant engineering problems. This project is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) that seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.