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Engineering byDesign™ – New Jersey Initiative

Featured in TCNJ Magazine: Creating a National Model for High School STEM Education

Engineering byDesign™ is a non-profit, standards-based, comprehensive, national curriculum model for STEM education. Developed by ITEEA’s (International Technology and Engineering Educators Association) STEM Center for Teaching & Learning, EbD™ was developed using research on factors that underlie effective teaching and learning of STEM disciplines. EbD™ is correlated to the Standards for Technological Literacy (ITEA), the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM), and Project 2061, Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS).

Other national STEM curriculum models, such as Project Lead the Way, can be restrictive regarding which students may take their courses; only the top science and math students are eligible. EbD™ provides opportunities for students of all ability levels to increase achievement in STEM areas. Moreover, one of the greatest advantages EbD™  is its cost effectiveness. For what a single school would pay to purchase Project Lead the Way curriculum, every middle and high school in NJ can have access to any EbD™ course, resource, assessment and training.

The activities within the EbD™ curriculum are flexible and can be adapted to any lab or classroom, from modest to elaborate, and using any range of materials, from inexpensive or recycled to sophisticated and new. EbD™ activities can be aligned to pre-existing curricular themes within a STEM program or academy. Teachers even have the option of substituting their own activities within EbD™ units, as long as those teacher-developed activities meet the same benchmarks as the EbD™ activities.

There are currently 22 states that have joined the EbD™ Consortium, offering its curriculum and resources for free to every school in their state. Coincidentally, most of the Consortium States happen to have the highest membership for the Technology Student Association (TSA). NJ is currently eighth in the nation for TSA membership. The top seven TSA states are currently part of the EbD™ Consortium. Additionally, EbD™ is currently exploring a partnership with National TSA to develop companion curricular materials to the National TSA Competitive Events Guide. Implementation of EbD™ in a school could potentially facilitate increased TSA membership.

All EbD™ curricular materials, resources and assessments are available on a unique, web-based, professional learning community in which teachers all over the country collaborate, share resources, post student work samples and dedicate themselves to improving their instruction.

 

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