TeachEngineering: Expanding the democratization of engineering education through increased partnerships and professional development

This three-year initiative, Teach Engineering: Expanding the democratization of engineering education through increased partnerships and professional development, is housed at the University of Colorado-Boulder in the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). Teach Engineering (TE) is the largest repository for K12 engineering lessons, activities, and teacher resources available for free in the U. S. The 1,600+ lessons, activities, informal sprinkles and maker challenges are aligned to NGSS, CCMS and ITEEA educational standards and disseminated via TeachEngineering.org. More than 3.3 million educators and other users accessed the TE digital library, potentially promoting technological and scientific literacy for millions of youths. The mission of TE is to democratize engineering education and create lifelong STEM opportunities for all youth by reaching educators across the nation, in both well-off and struggling schools, with free, design-focused, standards-aligned, hands-on engineering activities that rely upon readily available, inexpensive, simple materials. This project focuses on enhancing the content and increasing the visibility and usage of TE curricula and providing professional development for teachers. Project activities will expand the reach of TE through broadening the partnership base and building and expanding partnerships with members of the NAE (National Academy of Engineering), ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association) and other organizations, and with informal educators. The infusion of culturally relevant content in the TE library of existing and new resources, coupled with K12 teachers’ professional development and preparedness will expand the research-based offerings. The newly minted school-based TeachEngineering Educator Champions program has great potential to accelerate and increase the reach of TE. The use of the NCWIT engagement framework and toolkit for assessing TeachEngineering’s programming will assist the project with documenting and sharing best practices. This three-year initiative, Teach Engineering: Expanding the democratization of engineering education through increased partnerships and professional development, is housed at the University of Colorado-Boulder in the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). TeachEngineering (TE) is the largest repository for K12 engineering lessons, activities, and teacher resources available for free in the U. S. The project’s three overarching goals are to: 1) expand curricular reach, 2) dramatically increase teacher preparedness, and 3) enhance library content. NCWIT will leverage new and existing partnerships to reach both formal and informal educators with TE content and professional development. By partnering with national collaboratives such as the NSF-funded Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances, the Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Consortium, and the STEM Ecosystems Community of Practice and K-12 and Higher Education Alliances and internal programs (i.e., Counselors for Computing [C4C] and Aspirations in Computing [AiC]), an expanded network of new constituents can become aware of and use this unique engineering education repository of resources and professional development. Creating new programs that encompass in-person, virtual, and asynchronous options with research-based best practices will ensure the PD is culturally relevant and includes materials that encourage the inclusion of students from all backgrounds. NCWIT’s research-based Engagement Practices Framework, a compilation of research-based pedagogical and curricular practices, can help teachers engage all students, particularly those who may be underserved or underrepresented in engineering and other STEM fields. Through these activities, TeachEngineering will be better able to meet its goal of democratizing engineering education and creating lifelong STEM opportunities for all youth by reaching educators across the nation, in both well-off and struggling schools, with free, design-focused, standards-aligned, hands-on engineering activities that rely upon readily available, inexpensive, simple materials. 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.