The Need for Engineering Education

The Differences Between Engineering Education and Technology Education

Elizabeth Spingola
Ohio Northern University Engineering Education Ada, Ohio, United States of America e-spingola@onu.edu

Abstract Technical Education, in a loose sense, has been a part of our high school educational pedagogy for a very long time, however there are gaps in many parts of the of public education, especially in the technology field. This paper talks about the need to fill that void in knowledge. This knowledge can be used to better the quality of education about technology and engineering. It goes on further to introduce Engineering Education and how this new field of study will fill that void and do so much more for high schools, education and the fields of math and science in general. I.

to present a case as to why it is necessary for engineering education standards to be written. BACKGROUND

II.

INTRODUCTION

With the increased of emphasis on STEM education, technology education has been revitalized. After the The Rising of the Gathering Storm was published, there was a movement to bring back not only math and science in a new way, but technology education [1]. During those revitalization, the term engineering education has been formed. Although the phrase engineering education has been termed, the way that technology, and engineering, is being incorporated into the public school system has, for the most past, not been implemented substantially. The term engineering has been incorporated into the Next Generation Science standards, but it has not, formally, been defined. This leaves educators in a hard situation [2]. Do they incorporate this innovative material that the country is pushing for but is not in the standards, or do they follow the standards that are set out for them, that do not incorporate information that was said to be needed in Rising Against the Gathering Strom? This paper hopes

America has known since the last of the one room school houses that the educational system that has been in place is in dire need of renovation. At the time of the first World War, the basic exams that the American soldiers took showed that there was a great need to revise the educational system. Unfortunately, the country was too busy with the war, nothing significant was done to improve the educational system. Jump forward a few years, and there was another World War. During the basic exams that the American soldiers took for this war, the scores stayed the same as they were in the exams previous. This reflects the lack of change in the educational system. This lack of change continued until the time of the Cold War and Sputnik [1]. Sputnik, the Cold War, and the Space Race were the first events to really start any real change in the educational system in America. To try to stay ahead of the then Soviet Union, the government sponsored the growth of the educational system, mainly the math and science portion [1]. This helped to improve education in the United States, however, many decades have passed between that time and now and, once again, our educational system is in need of some major renovation. There has not been a major change in most of the standards, including the technology standards [1]. This means that there is new information that needs to be

incorporated into the ever-changing field of technology. Engineering, which embodies not only the study of technology, but design, deserves to be a standardized part of our educational system [6].

products Even though this information is a few years old, the message is clear and still holds a powerful truth; The United States is plummeting in the production of high-technology products. This can be seen in Figure 1[1].

III.

METHODOLOGY

This paper will inform the reader to the growing need for a revision of the educational system as presented in Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Then, it will analyze the different technology standards adopted by select states, including Texas and Massachusetts. It will compare the standards and find the common themes found in both of them. These standards are very different. The standards show that Texas does not begin to teach the students technology education until they are in sixth grade, while the standards in Massachusetts show that students are being introduced to Technology Education beginning in Kindergarten. After that, the document Engineering Education in K-12 will be analyzed. Special attention will be given to the similarities and differences that are found in this document, and others, talking about what engineering is and what should be included if education standards were to be made about Engineering Education and the documents issued by the states, talking about the standards for Technology Education. Conclusions will be drawn at the end of the research. The research question becomes: What are similarities and differences of Engineering Education and Technical Education and could new and innovative Engineering Education standards fill the gaps in learning?
IV.

Figure 1: United States Trade balance for high-technology products (in millions of dollars, 1990-2003) [1] Why is the production of high-technology products declining? A possible answer can be obtained from Rising Against the Gathering Storm.

SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE

Rising Above the Gathering Storm presented in 2007 that there is a great need to improve our educational system in the United States. This document realizes this need for a better education for our children and supports its call by producing evidence about our lagging in the technological fields. Figure 1 is from Rising Above the Gathering Storm, it asks a simple question: How is America doing now in science and technology? as defined as US trade balance for high-technology

Figure 2: Doctorates awarded by US institutions, by field and citizen status, 19852001 [1]

Figure 2 shows that there are less people obtaining their doctoral degree in engineering. Rising Against the Gathering Storm presents later in their document that the lack of reforming our educational system, especially in the fields pertaining to STEM, are contributing to the countrys decline in the technical fields. Technology Education needs to be reformed or improved upon [1]. The technology education standards in the state of Texas emphasize the application and the use of technology [5]. These standards are grouped only in the 6-12. A copy of a part of these standards is in the Figure 3.

vital part of the structure of engineering and is a process that is often times left out of the Technical Education classroom. This process is unique to engineering and sets engineering apart from other subjects that use different, or a non-unified process. Figure 4 depicts the Engineering Design Process [6].

Figure 4 [6]

Figure 3 [5]

These standards emphasize the understanding and the use of technologies that are already in place. They do not, for the most part, deal with the design and implementation of new and innovative machines, programs, etc. [5]. The engineering design process is a

The Massachusetts Technology Standards are fundamentally different than the Technology Education standards that are implemented in Texas [5]. Massachusetts starts implementing Technology Standards in Kindergarten, rather than sixth grade, like in Texas. Texas, and many other states that do not have specific Technology Education standards in the early grades, may argue that they are implementing Technology Education into their curriculum by incorporating them with other classes [5]. This implementation is fundamentally different than teaching Technology Education at a young age. The students become familiar with different technologies that can help them to complete a task, but the technology is not the focus of the lesson. Technology Education emphasizes not only the applications of the technology but the structure. It, also, analyzes the different aspects of the

technology being used such as: structure, usability, improvements, etc. [5]. The Massachusetts Technology Standards include three main standards that are repeated throughout the different grade levels that it incorporates [4]. Figure 5 shows part of the Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standards: Grades K through 2- Technology Exploration Skills and Expectations. The main, repeated standards are shown in the shaded boxes.

Engineering has been defined as design under constraints [3]. Why should the study of engineering in high school be defined as anything else? Engineering Education, as classified by Standards for K-12 Engineering Education is shown in the Figure 6.

These standards are: design, crossings to STM (Science, Technology, Mathematics), engineering and society, constraints, communication, systems, systems thinking, modeling, optimization, analysis, collaboration/teamwork, creativity knowledge of specific technologies, nature of engineering, prototyping, experimentation, visualization, use/manage and assess to technology, trade-offs, ethics, materials, resource, functionality, specifications, sustainability, understanding engineering as a career option, knowledge of contemporary issues, planning and management of skills, decision making, leadership and optimism [3]. While many of these topics are incorporated into Technology Education, a good deal of them, are not.

V.

DICUSSION

Rising Against the Gathering Storm has made it evident that there needs to be a significant change in the educational system in the United States. The information that was presented earlier in this paper from Rising Above the Gathering Storm provides evidence that there is a gap in the knowledge somewhere, if not in more than one place, in the public educational system [1]. After analyzing the Technology Education standards for two very different states, it has become obvious that a different approach to learning technology and design is needed [4] [5]. The standards for Technology are not required by every state and are not uniform. This leads to a gap and a large difference in the public education that is being provided by the United States government. Unfortunately, the previous attempts to organize Engineering Education, and even Technology Education, standards have proven less than successful [1].

Figure 5 [4]

Figure 7 [3]

As it stands, the most updated educational standards still do not incorporate engineering, as defined by Standards for K-12 Engineering Education, into the standards. Standards for K-12 Engineering Education defines engineering as designing under constraints. This is a fundamental part of engineering, along with the use of the Engineering Design Process [3] [6]. It is important to note that nowhere any of the standards is designing under constraints mentioned [2]. This means, by definition of Standards for K-12 Engineering Education, engineering is not fully incorporated into the current standards. Having designing under constraints missing from the standards leaves the students with an incomplete vision of engineering [3]. It, also, contributes to the gap in knowledge that is present in United States public school students. This missing knowledge, could explain the rapid decline in the technical innovation.

The overlap of the existing standards Figure 8

This graphic shows that math, science, and technology all fit together in an overlapping way. Each subject is sharing a little information from the other subjects to come up with a cohesive education.

With the implementation of true engineering into the public education standards, the youth of the nation can be educated in a highly innovative and technical way. By providing these young scholars with the proper education, they possibly could become more interested in engineering and technical skills as a profession. Having more students interested in these skills, will, statistically, excite more girls and young women about the hard science fields and encourage them to pursue further education in these fields.

Figure 9: The overlap of the existing standards and where engineering fits in

This graphic shows how Engineering Education should fit into the educational standards. While much of these proposed standards incorporate standards that are

already in place, there is a good portion of them that are to this point. This is a vital part of Engineering that is not being incorporated into the standards that is leaving our students with a hole in their education [6].

not

included

in REFERENCES

any

standards

VI.

CONCLUSION

The need for Engineering Education standards in K12 is great. The United States is falling behind academically and economically in comparison to past years. If we want to keep our status as a country that is at the forefront of technology, education, and academics, there must be a change to the educational system. The implementation of new Engineering Education standards will lead America on the path to gaining our previous prestige as a country.

Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century:An Agenda for American Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine
[1]

[2] DCI Arrangements of the Next Generation Science Standards; May 9, 2013. April 2013. [3] Standards for K-12 Engineering Education? [4] <http://www.doe.mass.edu/odl/standards/itstand.pdf>; May, 2013.
[5] Texas Technology ERducation Standards; May 9, 2013. [6] http://blogs.edutech.nodak.edu/jgudvang/category/engineering-designclass/. May 9, 2013.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank Dr. Kenneth Reid for encouraging me to major in Engineering Education and for providing me with opportunities to perform undergraduate research.