Workshop to help teachers use engineering design in science classes
June 7, 2012
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - More than 40 teachers from Indiana elementary
schools will attend a Purdue University workshop this month to learn how
to incorporate engineering design activities into their science
classrooms.
The workshop, which will be June 11-15 and June
18-22, is presented through the Science Learning through Engineering
Design (SLED) project. The project is co-directed by Alyssa Panitch,
professor of biomedical engineering, and Brenda Capobianco, associate
professor of science education.
SLED, a National Science
Foundation Math Science Partnership project that links Purdue with
Indiana school districts, is focused on improving science learning in
grades 3-6. Engineering design provides a hands-on way for students to
learn science by making products to meet specific needs.
New
Indiana elementary-level academic standards as well as national science
education standards call for students to understand and use the
engineering design process. The SLED project is developing materials,
teaching approaches and building a research base for meeting the new
standards.
SLED participants from Purdue are the colleges of
Education, Engineering, Science and Technology and the Discovery
Learning Research Center. Teachers attending the workshops will come
from the Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Taylor (Kokomo) and Plymouth school
districts.
The teachers will test new classroom design activities
developed by Purdue science, technology, engineering and mathematics
faculty and develop plans for implementing the activities with their own
students during the 2012-13 academic year.
More information on SLED is available at https://stemedhub.org/groups/sled
Writer: Judith Barra Austin,765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu
Source: James Lehman, College of Education, 765-494-8474, lehman@purdue.edu
