A template for engineering based K-12 math and science curriculum units

The urgent need to increase the number of engineering students, including female and minority students, has brought about numerous K-12 engineering outreach efforts. Many of these efforts involve extracurricular competitions while others entail infusing engineering based activities into K-12 math and science classrooms. The latter efforts require effective activities that provide a positive engineering experience and facilitate learning of math and science principles. Adventure Engineering is an NSF funded program developing curriculum for middle grade (5-9) classrooms. Curriculum units are designed to facilitate student learning and application of concepts and skills consistent with national math and science standards. The units are adventure theme or scenario-based (e.g., Engineering the Congo, Asteroid Impact, Surviving the Biosphere) and are designed to replace one to three weeks of existing traditional curriculum. Student teams learn and apply the relevant math and science concepts as they engineer their way through the scenario. The one to three week curriculum units are self-contained such that teachers can download the units from the Internet, gather the required materials, and implement with little extra effort. This paper presents a curriculum unit template that has been developed during the course of Adventure Engineering curriculum development.