Understanding K-12 Engineering Education in the United States

The goal of this project, a collaboration between the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Board on Science Education (BOSE), is to provide guidance to key stakeholders regarding the creation and implementation of K-12 engineering curricula and instructional practices, focusing especially on the connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. A number of initiatives in the United States promote opportunities for K-12 students to learn engineering. For the most part, however, there is little evidence of what works, little agreement about how these efforts might be judged, and little understanding among the policy and practitioner communities about which initiatives sit on stronger or weaker theoretical foundations.

This study will draw together the disparate informal science literatures, synthesize the state of knowledge, and articulate a common framework for the next generation of research on pre-college engineering education. The NAE and BOSE will appoint a multidisciplinary committee of 13 to 15 recognized experts in one or more of the following: cognitive science, education research, program evaluation, curriculum development, teacher training, workforce development, and engineering science and mathematics education. This committee, with support from NAE and BOSE staff, will survey the literature, deliberate about the evidence, and produce a report.

This expert committee will be tasked with the following objectives:

Survey the landscape of current and past efforts to implement engineering-related K-12 instructional materials and curricula in the United States and other nations;
Review evidence related to the impact of these initiatives;
Describe the ways in which K-12 engineering content has incorporated science, technology, and mathematics concepts, used these subjects as context to explore engineering concepts, or used engineering as a context to explore science, technology, and mathematics concepts; and
Report on the intended learning outcomes of K-12 engineering education initiatives.

The principal products of the project will be a peer-reviewed consensus report and a high-profile, conference at which the report will be released to the public. The project report will provide a detailed situation analysis and suggest policies, programs, and practices at the local, state, and federal levels that might permit meaningful inclusion of engineering in K-12 education. The project should help inform future programmatic activities of the NSF and other organizations concerned about this important subject.

Meeting 1: April 15-16, 2007	Agenda
Meeting 2: July 19	Agenda
Workshop: October 22-23	Agenda
Meeting 4: February 25-26	Agenda
Meeting 5: June 5-6	Agenda

Committee Membership