Why teach engineering in elementary/middle school?
There are many reasons to teach engineering in elementary and middle school.
There are many reasons to teach engineering in elementary and middle school.
- Children of this age have an innate curiosity about how things work and are fascinated by taking things apart and putting things together to learn how they work. By encouraging this creative and inquisitive expression we can help to keep these interests alive, and encourage them to pursue these activities in the future.
- Engineering projects integrate well with other disciplines. Using real-world, hands-on projects, students naturally engage in science and math activities, as well as all other subjects as a result of their research and investigations. From graphing data and learning scientific principles, to communicating their results with the world through multimodal approaches, students are engaged in real world, relevant applications of all subjects.
- Engineering fosters problem-solving skills collaboration, independent thinking. These are skills that are required for 21st Century careers, and should be a central part of the curriculum.
- Engineering concepts are taught through project-based experiences, which encourage students to think outside the box, problem solve and collaborate. It brings concepts from one dimension into the real world.
- Engineering and technological literacy are essential for preparing our students for careers of the future. Our society is increasingly dependent upon technology and engineering, a trend which is only growing stronger. To compete in the world market, we must prepare our students with skills that will ready them for careers, some of which don't even exist today. We must do what we can to create independent thinkers and problem solvers. Engineering is a great way to accomplish this.
No comments:
Post a Comment