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Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have incorporated engineering concepts and practices to a degree never before seen in the K-12 system in America. This presents K-12 educators and schools with some real challenges, and the engineering education community with an historic opportunity to help them address those challenges. How can engineering educators and professional engineers leverage this historic transformation of K-12 science and engineering education to dramatically increase the quality and quantity of engineering that is taught in K-12 schools? How can professionals in the engineering field position themselves to be resources for teacher professional development, classroom curriculum development, real-life experiences for students, and career role models for children and their parents? Through their diverse community connections, how can engineering educators stretch the current K-12 system’s definition of engineering and how and where engineering can be taught and learned?
In this workshop, participants will receive an overview of the Next Generation Science Standards, with a special focus on their multi-dimensional structure and how engineering concepts and practices are incorporated. Then, under the guidance of a cadre of experience engineering educators working in K-12 and community-based arenas, participants will explore a range of programs, products, and strategic actions that can leverage release of the NGSS to advance K-12 school and community-based engineering education nationwide. Participants will leave the workshop with a range of tools, contacts, resources and experiences that will position them to be active agents in their own community for increasing K-12 engineering education and broader public engagement in engineering.
David Heil is the president of David Heil and Associates, Inc., a company dedicated to innovation in K-12 science and engineering education. He is also a member-at-large on the Division's Executive Board.