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For decades, informal education research has provided evidence of the importance of parents' involvement in pre-college students' STEM learning. Previous research has put efforts into understanding the roles parents play to better engage children in engineering in out-of-school settings [1][2][3][4]. On the other hand, the shift to online learning during the pandemic and lack of access to external educational resources have highlighted the importance out-of-school learning, including the very important role parents play in providing elite education for children [5](also look for the special issue at Journal of Pre-college Engineering Education Research [6] However, when it comes to engineering education, parents, with no engineering background, do not have enough resources/trainings to provide engineering learning opportunities for their children at home. This resource shares a detailed description of a short professional development (PD) that was held at a high school for parents to learn about engineering. The parent PD had two aims: (1) to introduce what engineering design is, and (2) ways to engage children in engineering design at home. The PD was developed based on the ASEE P-12 Framework for Engineering Learning (p12framework.asee.org). During the PD, parents engaged in an engineering design activity in groups of three-four, without being introduced to any engineering design processes/frameworks. They were then asked to reflect on and discuss their design practices and processes. Finally, they were introduced to the Engineering Design practices suggested by the ASEE framework. This resource will include the engineering design activities, the guiding questions for parents, as well as a few slides that was used in the PD. This resource can be used by educators and researchers who aim to hold Parent PDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal learning environments such as science centers and museums are instrumental in the promotion of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. These settings provide children with the chance to engage in self-directed activities that can create lifelong interest and persistence in STEM. In addition, the participation of parents in these settings can engage children in conversations that can boost understanding and enhance learning of STEM topics. To date, a considerable amount of research has focused on adult-child dialogue. Findings from those studies revealed that children experience more elaborate scientific thinking when parents facilitate learning. Given the need for engineers to have computer science skills, academic discourse has placed emphasis on studying computational thinking (CT) in children. While some recent studies have focused on the roles parents play to promote children's engineering thinking, very few studies have explored parents' influence on children's engagement in CT. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the roles that parents play in promoting computational thinking in their young children. In this study, families of 5-7 year-old children were invited to a science center. The families were asked to interact with an exhibit, "Computing for the Critters," that was designed to promote engineering and computational thinking in children. We conducted a qualitative case study to closely examine child-parent interactions during one portion of the exhibit that is a computerbased coding game. Drawing on previous literature from engineering education and informal science education, a coding scheme was developed with the essential roles that parents play in science centers and museums. The roles include Supervising, Co-learning, Facilitating, Encouragement and Student of the Child. In this study, we have observed that parents take multiple roles in which some of them resulted in children's enactment of CTs. The findings of this study advance our understanding of how parents can support computational thinking while engaging in conversations during engineering activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise. However, limited research, if at all, considered aspects of engineering thinking of children with disabilities. Therefore, in line with the call for diversifying engineering education, considering inclusion of children with disabilities is necessary. Among different disabilities, the number of children with autism is rapidly growing. In addition, studies have shown that individuals with autism have the potential to perform well in activities that require systematizing abilities like engineering. Given the importance of participating in engineering learning opportunities from childhood and its impact on future engineering performance, engaging children with autism in appropriate engineering experiences is necessary. Therefore, we need to gain a deep understanding of how they engage in engineering learning activities. This study is a part of a bigger project in which we aim to characterize engineering thinking of children with autism. In this study, we are closely looking at the first and very important engineering practices; problem scoping. The main purpose of this study is to investigate how 8- 10 years old children with autism engage in problem scoping. We focused on three main components of problem scoping in engineering design (1) Problem Framing, (2) Information Gathering, and (3) Reflection. For this study, we have conducted a qualitative single case study analysis. We carefully chosen one case of child with autism. The child is make and 9 years old and participated in this study with his parent. They were asked to solve an engineering problem of building a roller coaster for a local amusement park in 60 minutes. Their interaction was videotaped and pictures of their designs were captured. We have analyzed the video data video analysis approach based on the codebook we developed by reviewing literature on problem scoping. The instances that we have seen in mom-child interactions and conversation provided evidence that the child with autism was capable of engaging in all three actions of problem scoping. The behaviors we have observed were mostly associated to Problem Framing and Information Gathering. However, we have seen some evidence of Reflection. We believe, that the findings of this study lays foundation for future studies on children with autism and engineering design, and how to effectively engage in them in these activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational Thinking (CT) is an often overlooked, but important, aspect of engineering thinking. This connection can be seen in Wing's definition of CT, which includes a combination of mathematical and engineering thinking required to solve problems. While previous studies have shown that children are capable of engaging in multiple CT competencies, research has yet to explore the role that parents play in promoting these competencies in their children. In this study, we are taking a unique approach by investigating the role that a homeschool mother played in her child's engagement in CT. This qualitative case study of a homeschool family is comprised of a mother and her six-year-old daughter. They engaged in two STEM+C activities designed by our research team. The parent first utilized the integrated STEM+C+literacy curriculum at home, and then visited a local science center. During their visit, both the parent and child interacted with an exhibit designed to promote engineering and computational thinking among children. Their engagement in both activities was video- and audio-recorded. Interviews regarding their experience were also conducted at the end of each activity (curriculum and exhibit participation). In this study, we employed a video analysis approach to examine childparent interactions and utilized a thematic analysis approach to analyze the interviews. Our findings suggest that homeschool parents are integral to supporting children's understanding of CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral education can be a challenging and overwhelming journey for many graduate students. Engineering Education as an interdisciplinary and emerging field welcomes diverse students in terms of race and ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientations, abilities, and language. Given the diversity within this field, engineering education students' experiences in this journey can be very different from one another during their doctoral years. Like any other diverse settings, engineering education students may have needs in common or completely different which required different ways of support. In this study, we are a group of engineering education students and alumni who speak English as our second language (ESL). Using co-operative inquiry, we aimed to reflect on our doctoral journey in engineering education and highlight the challenges we went through and ways we were able to overcome them. We are taking the positionality of researcher to participant to examine our experiences. The challenges are mostly centered over cultural differences, identity formation, language barriers and expectations from ourselves and our community including peers, faculty, staff, and people beyond the engineering education community. This study can convey a message to other ESL graduate students that they are not alone in this journey. Furthermore, the findings of our study highlights the approaches that other ESL students can take to help them overcome the challenges that they may face. Finally, the findings of this study can inform current and future faculty, policymakers, and school administrators about the ways they can support their ESL students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects in pre-college settings is seen as critical in providing opportunities for children to develop knowledge, skills, and interests in these subjects and the associated critical thinking skills. More recently computational thinking (CT) has been called out as an equally important topic to emphasize among pre-college students. The authors of this paper began an integrated STEM+CT project three years ago to explore integrating these subjects and literacy in a curriculum for 5-8-year-old students. We reported on the development of this project and an analysis of how the existing curriculum highlighted CT knowledge and skills, and how we expected the curriculum to engage students in CT in an ASEE conference paper in 2016. This paper reports on the evolution of the project and curriculum. Part of this evolution included the defining of CT and its associated competencies and what it would look like for this young age group. In this paper, we discuss this evolution as well as how we have operationalized the competencies with data from classroom testing. At the outset of this project, there were few resources that specifically considered teaching CT with 5-8-year-old children and fewer clear examples of what it looked like for children to engage in CT. However, there were many, sometimes competing, definitions and approaches to CT more generally. After further review of the literature and classroom testing of our revised curriculum, the team developed definitions for the following CT competencies: abstraction; algorithms and procedures; automation; data collection; data analysis; data representation; debugging/troubleshooting; problem decomposition; parallelization; simulation; and pattern recognition. Analysis of hundreds of students and tens of teachers implementing the curriculum allowed us to develop concrete examples of how students engage in CT competencies as well as how kindergarten through second grade teachers foster CT competency development. We report on these examples and how they informed the development of the integrated STEM+CT curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data collection procedure and process is one of the most critical components in a research study that affects the findings. Problems in data collection may directly influence the findings, and consequently, may lead to questionable inferences. Despite the challenges in data collection, this study provides insights for STEM education researchers and practitioners on effective data collection, in order to ensure that the data is useful for answering questions posed by research. Our engineering education research study was a part of a three-year, NSF funded project implemented in the Midwest region of the US. The project has engaged more than 60 teachers from 15 different public elementary schools and one private elementary school from five different school districts, as well as homeschool educators. More than 1,000 students, ages kindergarten to second grade, have been involved. Through this project, children engaged in integrated STEM + literacy +computational thinking activities in formal, informal, and homeschool settings. For this multi-faceted project, data collection was complex. The primary data collected for this project was video-recordings of K-2nd grade-aged children as they engaged in curriculum activities in both classroom and homeschool settings, as well as in activities designed for and set in a science center setting. Video recordings allow us to examine the ways that the children engage in engineering design and computational thinking, as well as in mathematics, science, and literacy. Video recordings also allow us to examine the interactions between children, as well as interactions between children and teachers/parents. Additional data included: copies of student work (e.g. worksheets, engineering design prototypes); field notes collected during classroom observation and science center visits; post-implementation interviews with teachers and parents; and surveys. In addition, a new approach, referred to as the 1+2 technique, in video data collection was developed to record the targeted data. Overall, the main aim of this paper is to provide critical insights for researchers who anticipate implementing more successful, purposeful and effective data collection in elementary schools, specifically in K-2 grade levels. We also anticipate that this paper will help practitioners and professional developers consider how they might collect video recordings: whether for allowing practitioners to reflect on their teaching practices; allowing teachers to share with families the in-class activities that children engage in; or assisting professional developers in developing video-based training materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children spend most of their time in out-of-school settings. As a result, informal learning settings can play a significant role in children's learning development. Museums and science centers are informal settings that are intentionally designed to promote learning and interest development. Studies show that these settings are where children begin to develop competencies, skills, knowledge and problem-solving processes that support participation in STEM-related careers. For example, many engineering exhibits have been designed for children to promote their engineering skills and practices as well as their understanding of engineering careers. One engineering practice is troubleshooting; troubleshooting is a practice used in many aspects of engineering work, including design, analysis, and programming. We situate this study in the engineering design literature as the task that our participants engaged in was an engineering design task. In this study, we examined ways young women engaged in design-based troubleshooting and compared them with what previous studies showed about the ways informed and beginning engineers troubleshoot their designs. To do so, we asked 7-11 years old girls with their caregivers to design a pneumatic ball run using pneumatic pistons in thirty minutes. The video data of four cases were then analyzed. Design-based troubleshooting was observed very often due to the immediate feedback they received (i.e., falling the ball means a problem). Our findings suggest that children can engage in some aspects of troubleshooting the same way as informed designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past two decades, researchers and educators have been interested in integrating engineering into K-12 learning experiences. More recently, computational thinking (CT) has gained increased attention in K-12 engineering education. Computational thinking is broader than programming and coding. Some describe computational thinking as crucial to engineering problem solving and critical to engineering habits of mind like systems thinking. However, few studies have explored how computational thinking is exhibited by children, and CT competencies for children have not been consistently defined. Hence developing and implementing effective CT-related activities for children can be difficult. Therefore, exploring what computational thinking looks like for children is critical. Children can engage in, and learn to engage in computational thinking in both formal and informal settings. In this study, we are interested in exploring what computational thinking might look like in settings that approximate children's everyday experiences. More specifically, in order to investigate what computational thinking looks like when enacted by young children, we are interested in observing children and their family members engaging in open-ended engineering activities that are play-based. To accomplish this, we observed and video-recorded 5-8 year-old children and their families creating different structures together using large foam blocks that are out for free play at a science center. Based on our observations and analysis of the video-recordings, in this paper we report on the computational thinking practices and competencies children and families demonstrated while engaged in engineering play. Our findings can provide information needed to create a framework for promoting computational thinking in young children in informal settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated learning is fundamental in the current era of STEM education. However, articulating evidence of learning in such complex learning environments can be a challenge. This is especially true in elementary grades where developmentally-appropriate practices are not fully defined and understood yet. One of the newest additions to the integrated STEM discussion is computational thinking (i.e., STEM+C). The purpose of this research is to explore computational thinking practices in one Kindergarten classroom during the implementation of an integrated unit. Student artifacts were collected, deidentified, and analyzed for understanding of computational thinking. Using artifact analysis, student worksheets and prototypes designed were examined for evidence of computational thinking competencies prompted by the STEM+C lesson units. This paper provides evidence of how kindergarten students engage with computational thinking through analysis of student work. Students successfully convert an existing color pattern into letters but have difficulty writing a complete pattern with repeatable units. Students also reveal difficulty with pattern abstraction as evident from prototypes designs that mismatched with their selected patterns design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]