This is the nineteenth in a series of articles entitled "The Legacy Project." The Legacy Project focuses on the lives and actions of leaders who have forged the technology and engineering teaching profession into what it is today. Members of the profession owe a debt of gratitude to these leaders. One simple way to demonstrate that…

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…

Fresh off its pilot year in 2019, International Technology and Engineering Educators Association's (ITEEA's) REACH Challenge has added a new toolkit component for 2020, which gives teachers everything they need to participate in this innovative STEM project--no matter if their classroom is in person, online, or a hybrid of both. REACH Challenge is…

In this quickly evolving digital world, the technology and education (T&E) education classroom can provide valuable instruction that creates a well-informed online citizenry through digital understanding and citizenship curriculum. For twenty years, "Standards for Technological Literacy" (STL) (ITEA/ ITEEA, 2000/2002/2007) provided…

Informal STEM education experiences can be invaluable to students as a means of developing their future career goals and career interests. Extracurricular programs in the form of clubs, competitions, teams, and activities provide a platform for these informal education experiences. There are many STEM-focused extracurricular options for students,…

The purpose of this article is to examine the level of emphasis placed on safety concepts and guidelines in "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" ("STEL") (ITEEA, 2020) in comparison to other current science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content area standards and frameworks. The authors who…

"Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" ("STEL") promotes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, where technology and engineering play a critical role as subject integrators. Integration of STEM in project-based learning is an ideal approach, with benefits of enhancing student…

As science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators in a teacher education program, it was discovered that students have commonly limited preconceptions about technology. Based on classroom experiences, when students are challenged to make a quick list regarding their ideas and examples of technology, they usually focus on…

The automated water filtration design challenge integrates computer programming and basic electronics concepts through the SIMILAR systems engineering design process. The SIMILAR systems design process is to state the problem, investigate alternatives, model the system, integrate the system, launch the system, assess performance, and reevaluate…

The focus of this article is to serve as an introduction to engineering principles in beam design using a lab activity. The concepts and skills learned in this article will lead students into concrete beam and form design and fabrication as well as the ability to precisely predict the amount of weight a concrete beam will hold during testing. An…

In 2002 the World Health Organization (WHO) analyzed available data on Blindness and Low Vision (BLV) from 55 countries and applied it to the 17 WHO epidemiological subregions. Results indicate approximately 37 million people are blind and 124 million have low vision (Foster & Resnikoff, 2005). Providing opportunities for these students to…

Design is often accepted as a fundamental aspect of engineering (Dym, et al., 2005). The design process is frequently portrayed as a set of steps. However, the design process is more complex than just a set of steps in a relatively fixed process. The complex nature of design, design thinking, questioning, and decision making is exactly what…

A strength of technology and engineering (T&E) education programs is that they provide a unique context for students with varying abilities to apply their knowledge and skills in nontraditional ways. These courses help prepare students with valuable skills needed for college and career readiness. Makerspaces, fab labs, and STEM labs often…

Marie Hoepl is a Professor and Associate Dean of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She responds to questions about her past experience as an industrial arts teacher to what recommendations she has to create a more inclusive classroom and working with underrepresented populations. She concludes how she wants to do more…

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.…