The Impact of an Engineering Design Curriculum on Science Reasoning in an Urban Setting

This study examines the use of engineering design to facilitate science reasoning in high-needs, urban classrooms. The Design for Science unit utilizes scaffolds consistent with reform science instruction to assist students in constructing a design solution to satisfy a need from their everyday live...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of science education and technology 2009-06, Vol.18 (3), p.209-223
Main Authors: Silk, Eli M., Schunn, Christian D., Cary, Mari Strand
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classroom design
Comparative Analysis
Curricula
Curriculum Design
Design engineering
Economically Disadvantaged
Education
Educational Change
Educational Technology
Engineering
Engineering education
Ethnic Groups
Grade 8
Inquiry
Logical Thinking
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority group students
Minority Groups
Multiple Choice Tests
Paper and Pencil Tests
Pretests Posttests
Reasoning
Schools
Science
Science Education
Science Instruction
Science learning
Scientific Concepts
Secondary school curricula
Statistical analysis
Students
Textbooks
Urban areas
Urban environments
Urban Schools
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study examines the use of engineering design to facilitate science reasoning in high-needs, urban classrooms. The Design for Science unit utilizes scaffolds consistent with reform science instruction to assist students in constructing a design solution to satisfy a need from their everyday lives. This provides a meaningful context in which students could reason scientifically. Eighth grade students from two urban schools participated in the unit. Both schools contained large percentages of racial/ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students. Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement on a paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice pre and post assessment. The results compare favorably with both a high-quality inquiry science unit and a traditional textbook curriculum. Implications for the use of design-based curricula as a viable alternative for teaching science reasoning in high-needs, urban settings are discussed.
ISSN:1059-0145
1573-1839
DOI:10.1007/s10956-009-9144-8