A Conceptual Framework for Engineering Design Experiences in High School

The infusion of engineering design into high school settings can help develop students' critical thinking skills and expose them to engineering careers at an early age. However, since the advent of engineering design in pre-college milieus, researchers, educators, and curriculum developers alike have been brooding over ways to introduce this equivocal subject into the k-12 realm. Due to its interdisciplinary nature engineering design has also struggled to find a home in classroom settings moving between technology education, to science classrooms and even informal learning environments. These factors considered it is our belief that the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field as a whole has failed to provide educators with an adequate literature-based framework for the infusion of engineering design experiences into the classroom. This includes determining proper sequencing of engineering design activities and establishing what types of engineering design problems high school students are able to work or solve. This paper will attempt to ameliorate some of these issues by promulgating a conceptual framework for introducing engineering design experiences to high school students. We will address the following areas in regards to engineering design in high school settings: situating engineering design in the curriculum, sequencing the engineering design experience, selecting appropriate engineering design challenges and assessing the engineering design experience. It is our contention that proper attention to these four areas will support the infusion and investigation of proper curricula and pedagogy needed to provide successful engineering design experiences for high school students.