Examining Children’s Engineering Practices During an Engineering Activity in a Designed Learning Setting: A Focus on Troubleshooting (Fundamental)

Abstract

Hoda is a Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering Education, Purdue. She received her B.S. in mechanical engineering in Iran, and obtained her M.S. in Childhood Education and New York teaching certification from City College of New York (CUNY-CCNY). She is now a graduate research assistant on STEM+C project. Her research interests include designing informal setting for engineering learning, and promoting engineering thinking in differently abled students in informal and formal settings.

Kindergartners’ Engagement in an Epistemic Practice of Engineering: Persisting and Learning from Failure

“…We also noticed in students' discussions of their first try fence design failures that while most diagnosed the reason for failure, fewer provided an explanation beyond saying that it was because of the blue/foam block or the hole, for example. This is consistent with aforementioned findings from Ehsan and colleagues [14]. Diagnosis and explanation are two facets-after observation-of diagnostic troubleshooting [7,9,10].…”

“…There has been little research that specifically attends to design failure and student responses to design failure at the kindergarten level (ages 5-6) or in other "adjacent" early childhood grade levels (e.g., grades PreK or 1) or ages (e.g., ages 4 or 7). A study by Ehsan, Rush Leeker, Cardella, and Svarovsky examined how four girls (ages 7-11 years) with their parents engaged in diagnostic troubleshooting during an engineering design challenge [14]. In some ways, the children behaved like Crismond and Adams' informed designers (e.g., engaging in a robust failure analysis)-especially as they observed and diagnosed [7].…”

“…Ask: "How will this fence work to keep Henrietta in?" Note that the protocol provides questions and prompts reminiscent of those by teachers or parents that encouraged diagnostic troubleshooting and evidence-based reasoning in prior aforementioned studies [14,16]. After posing the protocol questions, the first author asked participants to explain how the new fence is different/better than the first try fence.…”

“…questions were followed by "Why did this happen?" As articulated by multiple studies, such questions and prompts are important scaffolds for student engagement in practices such as diagnostic troubleshooting or supporting claims with evidence-based reasoning [14,16]. However, it is worth considering what counts as a robust explanation at the kindergarten level here.…”

Understanding How Children on the Autism Spectrum Engage in Solution Optimization during a Design Activity

“…Therefore, to have the biggest impact, and to be a more informed society with citizens with problem solving skills, engineering education should be inclusive enough to prepare ALL children to become wise decision-making citizens, who can evaluate the situation, find the flaw in the system and suggest ways to improve the system or redesign the system. Since these skills can be promoted by engineering design projects [1][4] [5][6] [7] providing engineering design opportunities for ALL children, regardless of their abilities and backgrounds, is necessary.…”