Engaging Young Engineers

Tentative 2nd edition Table of Contents (prior to revision) About the Authors Acknowledgements A Note to the Reader Part 1- Why Engineering and Problem Solving are Important Early Childhood Inclusive Classrooms Chapter 1: Young children are Natural Problem Solvers In this chapter, we would review material from Engaging Young Engineers about the importance of teaching critical thinking and problem solving and a method to do that using the engineering design process. We would review our early childhood model and talk about how you can incorporate these lessons and chapters into preschool and kindergarten classes so that they address STEM and literacy. Finally, we would review the applications of Universal Design for Learning in the problem-solving process and how these lessons are applicable to all classrooms, including those with students with disabilities and students who are emerging bilinguals. Currently, Chapter 1 serves to (a) review key prior work to bring STEM learning to children from birth to age 5, (b) “demystify” engineering design, and (c) introduce the five thinking skills that are important to engineering design as well as to young children’s problem-solving development. We will maintain these three goals for Chapter 1, but we will update each of the three main sections. In the “Approaches to STEM Learning” section, we will refer to more recent texts and curriculum materials including recent preschool-aimed “Wee Engineer” program by the Engineering Is Elementary group at Museum of Science Boston and the “Storybook STEM” resources by TERC and the University of Notre Dame, and Marina Bers’ “Coding as a Playground” work on computational thinking with young children. We will also acknowledge making/maker spaces as an important recent turn in STEM education more broadly.  In the “Engineering Design Demystified” section, we will update the “shopping cart challenge” example of engineering design to a more recent case with more contemporary references, and we will expand definitions of engineering and technology to incorporate humanistic aspects such as understanding societal impact, collaborating closely with communities, and using engineering in one’s own home and community. We will acknowledge that the engineering profession has a problematic history of excluding and marginalizing people of color and that the public narrative about engineering has not historically recognized all the STEM problem solving that occurs in the daily lives of people from all backgrounds, including people of color. We will articulate a goal of reversing this pattern.  In the “Our Problem Solving Framework” section, we will make updates to incorporate recent attention to computational thinking as a component of modern problem solving. We will discuss how computational thinking is used within engineering design even when computer programming is not explicitly needed. As we introduce the five thinking skills, we will mention the most relevant computational thinking practices for both engineering and young children, including decomposition (breaking apart a larger system, process, or problem into smaller, more manageable chunks) and algorithmic thinking (systematically generating a process that produces similar outcomes given similar inputs). Chapter 2: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings While this chapter will remain largely the same, we will update the explanations to include insights from Six Steps to Inclusive Preschool Curriculum by Eva Horn et al. (2018) and Universal Design for Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom: Teaching Children of All Languages, Cultures, and Abilities, Birth-8 Years by Brillante and Nemeth (2017). We will also update the “Research Evidence…” section and add newer references throughout the chapter, as applicable. We would also consider moving the section on the profile children from “Note to Reader” in the pre-matter to this chapter and adding a few more vignettes with children from with different abilities, languages, and cultures to Chapters 3-7 after briefly adding introductions to those children here. Part 2: Overview of the Book Format, Templates, and Tools In this section, we will remind readers of the overall format of the remaining chapters with lessons and units and the various templates and tools available in each chapter. The lessons can still be taught as stand-alone lessons or as units. Each chapter will be aligned to a thinking kills and include two (2) lessons for each age group (previously it had one lesson). Chapters 3-7 with the lessons will follow the same format and use several different text features to support teachers in implementing the units, such as teacher annotations as reminders or thought bubbles with possible questions teachers could ask students at various moments in the lesson. We will introduce new books to use with the lesson for each age group, both fiction and non-fiction books. We will also include references to ways to include Makerspaces in these lessons and products from Makerspaces in the lessons. In each chapter from 3-7, it will follow the same format. Goals and Objectives of the unit NGSS and CCSS addressed and pre-requisite skills addressed The original set of lessons (with any needed updates) A new set of lessons (one infant, one toddler, and one preschool) in each thinking chapter Directions on how to apply the engineering design process concepts in lessons/unit Literature links for fiction and non-fiction texts related to the lessons and content UDL template for the unit Connections to ways to incorporate Ideas for Low cost/no cost materials to use in the unit Chapter 3 – Curious Thinkers Chapter 4 – Persistent Thinkers Chapter 5 – Flexible thinkers Chapter 6 – Reflective thinkers Chapter 7 – Collaborative thinkers Chapter 8: Curious, Persistent, Flexible, Reflective, and Collaborative Teachers This chapter will be updated with a new vignette and any editorial updates that are needed. In this chapter, we will also help teachers to be more explicit in how they design their lessons for STEM and how to connect the use of Makerspace. We will look at what that means for teachers and how teachers become equipped and can experience Makerspaces themselves, as well as create them for others. Chapter 9: Tools and Resources for Teachers (new chapter) This chapter will provide links and suggestions for teachers who want to do more with STEM, engineering education, and problem solving in their classroom. We will offer additional tips and tricks on how to infuse STEM into your classrooms. Appendix: Tools and Templates Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet-Infants Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet-Toddlers Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet-Preschool Blank Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet Blank Infant Experience Planning Template Blank Toddler Experience Planning Template Blank Preschool Experience Planning Template General material list; both standard materials and low cost/no cost materials