Assessing the state of engineering instruction in Maine's K-12 schools

In today's increasingly tech-based economy, many high-salary jobs are created in the STEM fields. These jobs often are either in or related to engineering, and thus establishing an educational engineering pipeline is critical to supply this demand. In Maine, no state-wide assessment data of engineering literacy in K-12 schools is available. Information is needed to assess if the current quantity and quality of engineering instruction at K-12 level is sufficient to generate a pathway into engineering for Maine students and support the state's economic development. The work presented here addresses this need by conducting an in-depth assessment of engineering specific instructional interventions at Maine's K-12 schools. An expert panel, comprised of a diverse group of educators and practicing engineers, support the research team in defining, examining and quantifying current Maine STEM educational efforts from an engineering perspective. Preliminary survey results show that in rural and urban cluster areas, engineering related interventions are less frequent where high indices of economically disadvantaged students are found. Additionally, preliminary data indicates that the percentage of teachers with an engineering background is less than twenty percent. Preliminary results are further presented using geographical and demographic indicators such as county and economically disadvantaged student ratio.