In 1981, twenty-one industrial arts educators convened at Jackson's Mill, WV to develop an agreed-upon rationale and direction for the future of industrial arts. However, the route to achieve this goal was not as clear, as they had to "live the challenge of inquiry, assimilation, compromise, and consensus" (Snyder & Hales, 1981, p.…

Clean energy is a topic of increasing political and cultural significance in the age of climate change, and as such can be an interesting topic with which to engage students. One avenue to produce large quantities of power is through harnessing nuclear reactions; however, the social stigma and fear of expanding nuclear power have placed several…

In light of linguistic diversity within many U.S. classrooms, it has become paramount that technology and engineering teachers provide accessible yet rigorous instruction that supports students' language development. One of the best ways to support emergent bilingual students is to provide rich and robust vocabulary instruction in English, while…

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA's) Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Center for Teaching and Learning's Engineering by Design™ (EbD™) is a standards based Integrative STEM Education model program that provides curriculum, professional development, and assessments to K-12 schools. This article…

High school Technology and Engineering (TE) classes are, in the majority, comprised of male students (USDE, 2012). This data point is also true in middle and junior high school elective TE classes. In light of the rapid growth of technology and engineering career opportunities, the lack of women students enrolling in middle, junior high, and high…

The weeks leading up to summer break can be stressful for instructors and administrators, as they are ultimately responsible for inspecting and cleaning up their STEM education facilities to ensure a safer start the following academic year. In this article, the authors present a three-pronged approach to aid in safely closing down a makerspace or…

It is becoming increasingly important for students to go beyond engaging in design by reflecting upon the nature of engineering (NOE) and wrestling with questions such as, "What do engineers do?" and "What is engineering?" This article describes an activity in which middle school students are asked to create a product to help a…

Teaching students the design process and providing opportunities for design is at the core of engineering/technology education. The design process is a key feature of technological literacy, and design is the most represented element within "Standards for Technological Literacy" (ITEA/ITEEA 2000, 2002/2007; Lewis, 2005; Wicklein, 2006).…

By exposing students to the concept of digital agriculture earlier in their lives, they will be able to develop the proper mindset to advance the field further when they enter the professional world. Engaging students in activities such as the one described here, which center on the Grand Engineering Challenges and socially relevant contexts, may…

With the introduction of "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"), teachers have been called to find meaningful and engaging ways to teach science content while incorporating engineering practices and, to a lesser extent, computing and computational thinking. The task becomes even more complex when they also have to…

At the start of each academic year, it is critical that school systems have developed a plan regarding how safety is to be enforced within their Technology and Engineering (T&E) education departments. This plan should focus on a uniform way to approach safety across all T&E courses and help reduce the liability of the school district,…

Construction Education has been dwindling in K-12 classrooms for the past 20 years (Frazier, 2015; Chini, 1999; Jones, 1990). This has led to enrollment issues and professional shortages in the construction industry (Bigelow, 2015). Couple these facts with the call for STEM majors (Painter, 2012), and there is a noteworthy opportunity: combine…

Although there are over 320,000 health and fitness apps available on major app stores, there is scant evidence that they actually promote a healthier lifestyle, assist users in exercising, or promote weight loss. This article presents a lesson plan using an Arduino for integrating computational thinking and game design with middle school students…

Action research is a cyclical research process that may be used to improve instructional practice, assessment tools, and student outcomes. Action research always focuses on local problems and takes place in the natural setting of a classroom, laboratory, or school. Unlike traditional research, action researchers are primarily "committed to…

This article describes a lesson in which students will utilize ideation and engineering design to innovate a solution to a design problem using common household products.