Many STEM-related K-12 education standards, such as the Next Generation Science Standards, Standards for Technological Literacy, and Common Core Mathematics Standards, place great emphasis on designing as a way of delivering their core concepts. However, the classroom delivery of core design concepts has been the focus of very few studies. Particularly, most design-based lessons use a design process model, which poses a challenge for many engineering and technology educators. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the actual process of engineering design using the sequential pattern analysis method. The researchers collected ten Concurrent Think-Aloud (CTA) protocols from fourth grade elementary students. The collected CTA sessions were coded using Halfin’s codes, and then analyzed using the sequential pattern analysis method. The study results suggested there exist iterative patterns of design cycles when participant students were more likely to follow specific iterative sequential patterns. To better illustrate these design behaviors, the researchers created a design pattern model based on the sequential analysis.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7162-875X
Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)
[biography]
Euisuk Sung is a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Engineering and Technology Teacher Education at Purdue University. He has computer science degree and worked as a computer software developer for three years. then he served as an engineering and technology educator in high school for 9 years in South Korea. Currently he is working in NSF Funded project, titled TRAILS. His research interests are design cognition, maker education, computer science education, and all about STEM education.
Todd R. Kelley is an Associate Professor in Technology Leadership and Innovation. Dr. Kelley joined Purdue in 2008 upon completion of his PhD at the University of Georgia. He was hired as a P-12 STEM educational researcher and technology teacher educator. His dissertation research was on teaching and learning engineering design in secondary education. Prior to graduate school, Kelley was a high school and middle school technology education teacher for nine years teaching in three school districts in New York state and Indiana.
Dr. Kelley's research focus is in design and cognition seeking to better understand how young students learn design and how design improves STEM education. He joined a team of researchers to create a program to improve learning STEM in elementary grades, and the team was awarded an NSF Math and Science partnership called Science Learning Through Engineering Design (SLED). Kelley is currently the PI on an NSF I-Test project called Teachers and Researchers Advancing Integrated Lessons in STEM (TRAILS). TRAILS prepares science and technology education teachers to integrate STEM content through biomimicry inspired engineering design within the context of entomology.
Dr. Kelley the program coordinator for the engineering/technology teacher education program at Purdue. Dr. Kelley is also leading the second year Design Thinking course for the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. The course is a collaboration between the Polytechnic and Anthropology to integrate ethnographic approaches by developing technological and engineering design human centered design solutions.
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