Raising Engineering Awareness in K-12:

Why Engineering Should Be Taught in Pre-Collegiate Schools

Engineering is about creating something new, improving existing technologies, solving
problems, and prioritizing competing factors. An engineer must consider ethics, efficiency,
requirements of clients, and societal constraints while finding the best solutions possible. I
cannot stress enough the immense value of exposing students to engineering in grades K-12
and eventually integrating it into every states Common Core State Standards across the nation.
Since it is not currently implemented in all school curriculums, there is a widespread lack of
understanding of what engineering is and is not. While fully incorporating engineering into all
school curriculums will enhance students abilities mathematics and science classes, it will also
strengthen their abilities to think creatively and problem-solve, strengthening their abilities in all
their classes. In order to raise awareness successfully, educators must incorporate engineering
principles through real world contexts and in an inviting, simple way.
A major problem with failing to teach engineering in pre-collegiate schools is that too
many children grow up unaware of what the field is or that it even exists. I myself had no idea
what it was or that I could consider it as a future career until I attended a college fair the
summer before my senior year of high school. After exploring what it was, engineering quickly
became not only my college major, but also the subject I am most passionate about. The seeds
for a widespread engineering curriculum are already planted in the pre-collegiate school system.
Carr, Bennett, and Strobel of Purdue University proved through their research that "engineering
does exist in state standards across the nation, and this momentum should be built on moving
forward. They demonstrated that some engineering skills and knowledge exist within the
standards of other courses by counting the engineering process verbs currently present in state
standards across the nation. (Carr, 2012, p. 21) Although their conclusions are valid, the current

level of teaching engineering principles is not an ending point, it should be a starting point that
needs to be built upon.
I have witnessed firsthand the rewards of introducing STEM to children through a few
workshops I participated in with the Society of Women Engineers. We created short lessons
with fun projects to enforce what we were teaching. It was amazing to see how much fun the
children had and how their faces lit up when they all came up with their own creative ideas for
the same project. The most promising observation was the children's excitement and willingness
to learn more about what we do or will do as future engineers. Like I was at that age, so many of
them had no idea what engineering was prior to our workshop, but I believe we left them with
the appetite for more.

Engineering educators are not only dealing with people who have no idea what
engineering is, but also battling the misconceptions that many hold. Even among students who
have heard of it, theres a general fear of engineering. Engineering is not as scary as it is often
made out to be. Like most things, engineering is less intimidating when broken down into

simpler segments. For example, the engineering design process that New York City
Department of Design and Construction (NYC DCC) STEM Initiatives and Community
Partnerships uses for their young students introduces a simplistic way of approaching design
processes (shown above). This model teaches young students that engineering is not as
abstract or difficult as it seems, and can be broken down into a series of reoccurring steps. This
allows students to attain the mindset that they can aspire to achieve careers in STEM and
suppresses doubts that the field is beyond reach. This is the potential value of exposing
students to engineering design at a young age. Most people don't see the creative, limitless
side of engineering and instead see its technical side. (Carr, 2012, p. 22) By starting early to get
rid of the misconceptions surrounding engineers and what they do we can instill in children the
belief that they are capable of taking it on.
It is evident that engineering strongly reinforces science, mathematics, and technology
by arming students with a tool to use to attack difficult or boring topics and produce original
ideas. In addition, because engineering encompasses an approach to learning and problemsolving, the principles of engineering can be applied in various contexts, which can then aid
students at any grade level in all of their classes. The NYC DDC engineering design process is
a perfect example of this. In fact, the thought processes used in engineering can be used
entirely outside of school in students day to day lives. "The engineering community can
promote the big ideas of engineering to improve college readiness for all fields and improve
math and science performance across the board..." (Carr, 2012, 21) Although I agree that it
reinforces math and science courses, I would expand the statement and agree more with Israel
and Williamsons article. The benefits of studying STEM go beyond just science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics. STEM education, in the larger view, is an approach to learning
that emphasizes student-centered, collaborative learning. (Israel, 2013, p. 19)
Sunthonkanokpong presented his research on what will be expected of engineering graduates
in the future, specifically 2020, as they face increasingly complex problems and globalization. It

is clear from the survey done that future engineers will have to master much more than
technical engineering skills in order to be successful, and I could not agree more with the
attributes listed. The characteristics that they found must be very strong are lifelong learners,
ability to frame problems, putting them into socio-technical and operational context,
dynamic/agile/resilient/flexible, high ethical standards and a strong sense of professionalism,
good communication skills, possess strong analytical skills, exhibit practical ingenuity; possess
creativity, and business and management skills; leadership abilities. (Sunthonkanokpong, 2010,
p. 163) Reading through that list is clear evidence that raising students abilities in the attributes
of engineering will raise their abilities in their other classes.
To answer the question of why a topic should be taught and learned, it is helpful to put
the topic into a real-world context. Engineering is by definition this real-world context for
science, technology, and mathematics. Israel and Williamson portray engineering as something
more than just following instructions for a lab, or memorizing facts and formulas. Instead, it is
being able to create original experiments and develop new concepts. (Israel, 2013) This
expanded way of thinking of engineering is also the justification for teaching it in pre-collegiate
schools. For educators, it is critical to reveal to students what engineers do in simple applied
scenarios. To overcome the common misconception and effectively teach engineering design, it
must be made accessible and inviting to students. Learning to think like an engineer will help
students in science, mathematics, and technology classes, it will assist them with their formal
education as a whole, and it will benefit them in problem solving, prioritizing, and decision
making in their everyday lives.

References
Carr, R. L., Bennett, L. D., & Strobel, J. (2012). Engineering in the K12 STEM Standards of the
50 US States: An Analysis of Presence and Extent. Journal of Engineering Education,
101(3), 539-564.
Israel, M., Maynard, K., & Williamson, P. (2013). Promoting literacy-embedded, authentic STEM
instruction for students with disabilities and other struggling learners. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 45(4), 18-25.
Sunthonkanokpong, W. (2011). Future global visions of engineering education. Procedia
Engineering, 8, 160-164.
[Untitled illustration of engineering design process]. Retrieved October 5, 2016 from
https://www.teachengineering.org/k12engineering/designprocess.