Purdue students soon to become teachers learn to teach STEM with Engineering by Design | Lynn Bryan and Nathan Mentzer.

Let's say the first-grade students are learning about the concept of habitat, which, in their town, birds are losing to a construction project that they pass by on the way to school, as Greg Kline, Communications Manager Purdue Online at Purdue University reports.

Elementary education major Rebecca Bryant works on a nest box as part of the Engineering by Design “Home Tweet Home” unit for young children. The program is designed to teach children science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) more effectively by relating it to the world around them.
Photo: provided

What do the birds need? They need a nest. So the students use arts and crafty materials to build one. Now they need a place to put it, like a birdhouse, which requires measuring to make sure the nest will fit and thinking about things like peaking the roof to let the rain run off. Suddenly, the kids are learning not only science but also some math and a bit of engineering as well.

In fact, they’re getting a lesson in all the elements of STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That’s the point of a program called Engineering by Design, which some Purdue students who are training to be teachers have worked this semester to include in their teaching toolkit.

The Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM (CATALYST) at Purdue piloted a workshop for the prospective elementary school teachers to learn to teach through integrated STEM approaches using Engineering by Design, a unique model developed by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association's STEM Center for Teaching and Learning...

“Teachers who complete the Engineering by Design workshop will be classroom-ready for meeting the objectives of Indiana’s STEM Strategic Plan,” said Lynn Bryan, director of CATALYST and a professor in the College of Education and College of Science. “For example, they will have experience teaching via problem/project/inquiry-based approaches to learning as well as have access to integrated, evidence-based STEM curriculum.”

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Source: Lynn Bryan, labryan@purdue.edu and Nathan Mentzer, nmentzer@purdue.edu.