2023 Ed+gineering Summer Workshop

On Tuesday August 1st, 35 local elementary teachers attended the Ed+gineering Summer Workshop to explore strategies for integrating engineering into elementary classroom instruction. They learned about the importance of considering empathy in their design and implementation of engineering problems and solutions, and the need for diversity within the engineering profession. Participants were lead by Dr. Christine Cunningham and Dr. Katie Bateman from the Museum of Science located in Boston, Massachusetts. Teachers discussed the engineering design principals and why students engagement in engineering is so important. They were then separated into groups by grade-level to engage in lessons designed for their students and standards. The day ended with an opportunity for teachers to share out what they had learned and describe how they will structure their classrooms to teach engineering in the future. 

2022 Ed+gineering Summer Workshop

On Wednesday August 3rd, about 40 local elementary teachers and STEM division specialists attended the Ed+gineering Summer Workshop to explore strategies for integrating engineering into elementary classroom instruction. They learned about the importance of considering empathy in their design and implementation of engineering problems and solutions, and the need for diversity within the engineering profession. Through sessions led by project team members and a guest panel of local in-service teachers, participants learned how to minimize barriers to engineering integration in their classrooms, such as a lack of time and materials. To overcome these barriers, participants learned about engineering challenges they can facilitate with supplies they already have in their classrooms and brainstormed ways in which they can integrate engineering into other subject areas such as reading/writing, mathematics, and social studies. Division leaders also discussed barriers to engineering integration and shared successful strategies that have worked with their elementary schools and teachers. In the morning they built paper bridges, catapults, and cars, and designed a corral to contain their “Bristle Bot” robots. In the afternoon, they “jigsawed” their way through four engineering lessons where they learned about and then taught their peers how to build windmills, construct frog habitats, design mechanisms for pollination, and create a process to clean up an oil spill. Using class materials provided to them from the workshop, we know that the in-service teachers will do a phenomenal job teaching these lessons in the upcoming school year!

2021 Ed+gineering Summer Workshop

On August 4th, the Ed+gineering project team held its first summer workshop at ODU’s Darden College of Education and Professional Studies for preservice and inservice elementary teachers. About forty teachers attended the workshop and learned more about what engineering is, the importance of teaching engineering, differences between engineering, science, and crafting/art, and how to incorporate culturally responsive pedagogy into cross-disciplinary engineering lessons.

Teachers also actively participated in hands-on engineering activities and lessons that can be used in their classrooms in the upcoming school year, such as mitigating the effects of flooding in Norfolk, designing light-up name tags that help keep kids safe, engineering a Sphero-powered chariot for Beyonce, designing irrigation solutions for crops in Ancient Egypt, designing a bubble wand, saving “Sam” the gummy worm, and building a looping roller coaster.

2021 Ed+gineering Summer Workshop

On August 4th, the Ed+gineering project team held its first summer workshop at ODU’s Darden College of Education and Professional Studies for preservice and inservice elementary teachers. About forty teachers attended the workshop and learned more about what engineering is, the importance of teaching engineering, differences between engineering, science, and crafting/art, and how to incorporate culturally responsive pedagogy into cross-disciplinary engineering lessons.

Teachers also actively participated in hands-on engineering activities and lessons that can be used in their classrooms in the upcoming school year, such as mitigating the effects of flooding in Norfolk, designing light-up name tags that help keep kids safe, engineering a Sphero-powered chariot for Beyonce, designing irrigation solutions for crops in Ancient Egypt, designing a bubble wand, saving “Sam” the gummy worm, and building a looping roller coaster.