Work in Progress: Student-Directed Learning: An Approach to Sustainability and Engineering Education

An increasing focus in K-12 educational outreach is on the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A challenge in educating students about STEM topics is the ability to communicate the key concepts on a level that engages the students. The student-directed learning approach allows the students to create educational content and the teacher to oversee the development. The student's peers serve as the audience, shifting the interface of students and teachers, as well as increasing student to student interaction. The proposed approach is based on the outcomes of a preliminary internship, which challenged students to develop a week-long module to communicate one of four sustainability concepts: green building, energy, water and green materials. The proposed study will focus on a larger sample of middle school students developing educational modules focused on sustainability and engineering. In-depth assessment of the student developers will provide information on audience awareness, self-efficacy, as well the effectiveness of the approach.