A group of adults, dressed in authentic medieval costumes, organize and stage a full-scale battle at a local park; weapons (made from foam), roles, and medieval speech are all part of the event. This is known as "Live Action Role Play" -- more commonly referred to as "LARP." Although many settings and scenarios have been used…

Classrooms are operating differently during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in lab-based courses. Virtual classrooms utilizing Zoom, Google Meet, or other conferencing software can create challenges for hands-on, lab-based classes. These virtual methods also pose problems for pre-service teacher education students attempting to gain much needed…

The importance of design and technology (D&T) education has been advocated by numerous researchers over the last three decades. For instance, Nigel Cross suggests that in design education, there are ill-defined problems and "designerly ways of knowing" (2006). Today D&T in school education is employed globally and the common…

In conjunction with local middle schools, the Make to Learn Lab in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia offered a two-week Summer Engineering Academy for students who completed an introductory engineering course during the previous school year. In that course, students worked with circuits and advanced…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a plethora of problems globally for school boards, administrators, and teachers of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM). From the beginning of 2020, marginalized students--those who live in low-socioeconomic environments or come from traditionally underrepresented communities or…

Now in its sixth year of implementation, the TECHFIT approach involves having individuals and teams of middle school teachers successfully complete a week-long, professional development (PD) workshop through which they acquire the essential skills that contribute to the task of innovating an exergame. An exergame is a technology-supported fitness…

Technology and Engineering Education (T&EE) includes "engineering design challenges" to establish a connection to designing and problem-solving indicative of being an Engineer. Engineering design challenges involving bridges (or towers) have been a common feature of the discipline. These bridge design challenges ask students to…

The Buck Institute for Education defines Project-Based Learning as, "a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge." (What is PBL, 2020). The idea behind this teaching technique is to…

This article discusses how middle and high school inner-city and rural students can increase their academic achievement and self-efficacy in STEM classes using The Digital Curriculum, a program that incorporates digital technology, software, and a design project. This curriculum, which integrates socially relevant content, gives students a chance…

For as long as the profession of technology and engineering education (TEE) has existed (the addition of engineering to the professional title marks the official beginning of the profession, and that occurred in 2010), there has been a struggle. Arguably, this struggle's roots go back to the beginning of public education in the U.S. The struggle,…

Creating a community rather than an institution is a goal that all educators should strive to meet. To do this, school districts try to unify their student bodies by bringing attention to an obstacle too many children face--bullying. In the Technology and Education (TE) classroom, topics involving bullying can be difficult to include in everyday…

Despite the tragedies connected to the pandemic, tragedy has again presented an opportunity for technology and engineering teachers, students, and courses to shine--where we can demonstrate the value of adaptability and creativity in hands-on learning and technical content. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the recently released…

Amanda is in her fifteenth year at Mashpee Middle High School where she teaches Technology, Engineering, Robotics, and Intro to Computer Science at the secondary level. She has been recognized for her innovative efforts in STEM Education including in 2020 as an ITEEA Teacher Excellence recipient and in 2019 as the Massachusetts STEM Teacher of the…

As the authors are proponents for engineering education that is done well, they have provided an explanation of truss design using the Method of Joints that combines the application of practical hands-on learning with sound mathematical and scientific theory. The Method of Joints will allow students to design trusses to meet specified criteria…

Members of modern society should have skills that include understanding the technological world around them and how it can influence and be influenced by citizens. In an effort to create an informed, responsive, and technologically literate public, Technology and Engineering Education curriculum concerning digital citizenship and digital…