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Manufacturing is considered one of the major economic drivers in the United States. However, a challenge for manufacturing competitiveness can be the negative perception of the industry held by children, and society as a whole, which may make them reluctant to pursue manufacturing careers and fulfill the projected workforce demands. Accordingly, there have been a number of talent pipeline initiatives to address the issues related to (1) the availability of a skilled workforce, (2) the preparation of students for the jobs of tomorrow, and (3) teacher access to the tools necessary to inspire children to pursue high-demand career pathways. While these industry-driven outreach initiatives are often developed with the best intentions, research attempts focused on better understanding the influences of these initiatives on children’s perceptions of manufacturing-related careers are necessary. Therefore, this study focused on investigating the career perceptions of children (Grades K-8) and the influence of an industry-led summer camp focused on robotics in manufacturing. To do so, data were collected from career-perception surveys and a “Draw-A-Manufacturer” test, which were administered before and after the camp experience. The influences of the summer camp on the participants’ career perceptions and interests are presented and used as a foundation for discussions and recommendations for developing outreach initiatives and preparing children for the future of work.

Adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ) has proven to be a valid, reliable, and feasible method for assessing student performance in open-ended design scenarios. In addition to the use of ACJ for purely assessment and evaluation, research has demonstrated an opportunity to identify the design values of judges involved with the ACJ process. The potential for ACJ, as a tool for understanding cultural design values, and potentially facilitating international collaboration, is intriguing. Therefore, this study established three panels of judges, from countries around the world, to assess one body of student work using the ACJ method. The similarities, differences, and findings from these assessment results were analyzed, revealing distinct design values, preferences, and differences for each group of judges from the different locations.

Design within primary and secondary schools has been increasingly emphasized over the past decade. As a response to this increased interest, qualitative research examining students’ cognitive processes involved in the practices of design has been on the rise. These studies have commonly employed the concurrent think-aloud research methodology to examine and describe an individual’s or group’s thought processes while engaged in a design task. However, the variety of coding schemes used to code and describe the collected think-aloud data has limited the synthesis of findings across design cognition studies, which can be a concern as the synthesis of qualitative studies can potentially lead to the development of more formal and possibly more generalizable theories (Glaser and Strauss in Status passage, Aldine, Chicago, 1971). Nevertheless, a study conducted by Grubbs, Strimel, and Kim (2018) examined the different coding schemes used in analyzing the design cognition of primary and secondary students that were published between 1995 and 2016. Their investigation led to the identification of three distinct themes for the foundation and intent of the various design cognition coding schemes and provided a basis for a more informed meta-synthesis of design cognition research. Therefore, this study examined the design cognition studies identified by Grubbs et al. (2018) and synthesized both the findings and discussions of each, according to the three coding scheme themes. The results of this investigation can provide deeper insights into primary and secondary students’ design thinking and can help inform design pedagogy.

This study examined the design cognition and achievement results of both kindergarten and fourth grade students engaged in engineering design-based instructional activities. Relationships between design cognition and student grade level, as well as quality of student work, were investigated. 30 concurrent think-aloud protocols were collected from individual primary students as they worked in groups to design and make a solution to a design task. The concurrent think-aloud protocols were examined and coded to determine the duration of time the participants devoted to a pre-established set of mental processes for technological problem solving. Significant differences between kindergarten and fourth grade participants were found in the amount of time various cognitive processes were employed. Fourth grade students dedicated significantly more time to the mental processes of Creating, Defining Problems, Measuring, and Testing than kindergarten students. In addition, when examining the think-aloud protocols along with the evaluations of the participant’s design work, it was found that more time devoted to the cognitive process of Managing could be a significant predictor of lower design achievement. These findings can highlight potential areas for improving educational practice based on the cognitive abilities of students at different grade levels and the quality of their design work. As engineering design-based activities become more prevalent for the teaching of STEM-related content and practices, the results of this research, and the employed methodology, may demonstrate a promising practice for better understanding and assessing such education efforts.

This article examines content validity in teacher made tests in elementary technology education—an interdisciplinary subject mandatory for all pupils in compulsory school in Sweden. The context of ...

While design-based pedagogies have increasingly been emphasized, the assessment of design projects remains difficult due to the large number of potentially “correct” solutions. Adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ), an approach based on assessors/judges working through a series of paired comparisons and selecting the better of two items, has demonstrated high levels of inter-rater reliability with design projects. Efforts towards using ACJ for assessing design have largely centered on summative assessment. However, evidence suggests that ACJ may be a powerful tool for formative assessment and design learning when undertaken by students. Therefore, this study investigated middle school students participated in ACJ at the midpoint and conclusion of a design project, both receiving and providing feedback to/from their peers through the ACJ process. Findings demonstrated promise for using ACJ, as a formative assessment and feedback tool, to improve student learning and achievement.

Open-ended design problems have become an important component in our educational landscape (Grubbs and Strimel in J STEM Teach Educ 50(1):77–90, 2015; Jonassen et al. in J Eng Educ 95:139–151, 2006; National Research Council in Education for life and work: developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st Century, National Academies Press, Washington, 2012; Strimel in Technol Eng Teach 73(7):8–18, 2014a). The ability of students to confront open-ended problem scenarios, think creatively, and produce novel designs have all been lauded as necessary skills for today’s twenty first century learners (Partnership for 21st Century Skills in P21 framework definitions, Author, Washington, 2016). This emphasis on open-ended design problems in problem-based learning scenarios has been tied to workforce and higher education preparation for students (National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council in STEM integration in K–12 education: status, prospects, and an agenda for research, National Academies Press, Washington, 2014; National Research Council in Engineering in K–12 education: understanding the status and improving the prospects, National Academies Press, Washington, 2009; Strimel in Technol Eng Teach 73(5):16–24, 2014b). However, little research has been conducted to identify the impact of potentially-influential factors on student success in such open-ended design scenarios. Therefore, the researchers examined data from 706 middle school students, working in small groups, as they completed an open-ended design challenge to determine the relationships between a variety of potentially-influential factors and student performance, as measured through adaptive comparative judgment. The analysis of the data revealed several relationships, significant and not significant, between identified variables and student success on open-ended design challenges.