Elementary Education and Engineering Design: Concrete Experiences in Mathematics and Science

The education community has focused attention recently on a number of initiatives to evolve, and perhaps revolutionize, approaches for teaching science, mathematics, and engineering. In this paper, we present a new engineering and design technology program, initiated in 1992 and referred to as DTEACh, that focuses on the elementary grades. Two components comprise this new program: (1) open-ended design and exploration lessons that use hands-on models to teach integrated mathematics and science principles, and (2) a two-part teacher preparation program to provide teachers with the necessary engineering, mathematics, and science fundamentals for DTEACh. In this paper, we focus on a description of the teacher preparation program, including discussions of a novel teaching model, the subject matter for engineering and design fundamentals, and evaluation of the program. Results of the evaluation that teachers are more confident and equipped to facilitate the instruction of mathematics, science, and engineering principles.