Abstract Background In response to the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, a K–12 workforce development initiative was launched to embed microelectronics education across US school districts. To promote sustainability, the initiative employed a district‐wide vertical alignment strategy that progressively integrates microelectronics content and engineering‐related career experiences from kindergarten through high school. While vertical alignment is often used for curriculum planning, its broader potential as a systems‐level strategy remains underexplored. Purpose This study investigated how vertical alignment functions within a K–12 engineering workforce development initiative, focusing on enablers/barriers toward expanding and sustaining integration efforts. The research questions addressed stakeholder experiences with the alignment process and how microelectronics instruction/curriculum developed across schools, grades, and disciplines. Design/Method A collective case study was conducted across seven school districts. Data included semi‐structured interviews with educators and leaders, district‐level planning documents, and process evaluation surveys. Thematic analysis examined patterns of district readiness, stakeholder engagement, leadership dynamics, and external facilitation. Results The vertical alignment process served as both a curriculum synchronization tool and a coordinator of strategic levers for promoting systemic change. It revealed instructional gaps, promoted collaboration, and fostered scaffolded progressions from engineering exposure to career readiness. District plans emphasized coherence, career relevance, and cross‐disciplinary integration. Leadership and external facilitation were identified as critical supports. Conclusions Vertical alignment at the school district‐scale can function as a practical systems‐level strategy for embedding workforce‐aligned content into educational practice in more lasting ways. Lessons from this study offer actionable insights for better sustaining engineering and technical workforce initiatives at scale.

The burgeoning microelectronics workforce is in critical need of skilled graduates. Engineering employers continuously lament that desired professional and technical skills are not sufficiently developed in new hires. Ongoing workforce development is necessary to address the given skill gaps. The concepts derived from the ABET process and awareness skills, Engineering Habits of Mind, and experiential learning frameworks were used as the lens through which the researchers probed the professional and technical skills that individuals need to succeed in entry-level engineering positions. This study utilized a qualitative approach utilizing six semi-structured interviews with microelectronics professionals in the Defense Industrial Base who are involved in hiring process interns and/or new hires. Seven professional skills themes were produced from thematic analysis. The results expand previous frameworks for engineering student outcomes, making a new one that is relevant to the present day and applicable to the microelectronics engineering context. Additionally, the results make it clear that higher education practices must recognize that both professional and technical skills need to be honed to make a career-ready graduate. The authors conclude that additional progress is still needed to build the professional skills of students as they complete their academic programs. It is evident that professional skills are inextricably intertwined and cannot be separated from technical skill development for microelectronics engineers. The unique public-private-academic partnership involved in this study provides a workforce development perspective that is useful for both academics and industry professionals.

This paper explores the experiences and learning outcomes of preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) as they integrate computational thinking (CT) into their teaching practices during a structured field experience. Through a qualitative content analysis of video reflections from 27 PSTs, the study examines how teaching CT lessons to K-2 students enhances the PSTs’ understanding of CT and their pedagogical skills. The field experience, which involved hands-on activities using ScratchJr and Tale-Bot, revealed several key themes: the importance of hands-on learning for student engagement, the benefits of empowering students to take an active role in their learning, the necessity of balancing teacher guidance with student independence, and the development of PSTs’ confidence in implementing CT activities. The findings suggest that structured field experiences play a crucial role in preparing PSTs to effectively integrate CT into elementary education, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. The study emphasizes the need for teacher preparation programs to incorporate real-world teaching opportunities to foster PSTs' confidence and adaptability in teaching CT, thus equipping them to meet the demands of 21st-century classrooms.

This work-in-progress, research paper explores how high school students use novel technology during an integrated engineering, microelectronics (ME), and mathematics curriculum unit. This study aims to explore how students manage technological tools while designing solutions to a realistic problem with the following research question: How do student teams navigate technological issues during implementation of a microelectronics-focused engineering curriculum in a high school mathematics class? This multiple embedded case study design, grounded in naturalistic inquiry, includes four student teams in two different pre-calculus classes. Video recordings of the four teams were analyzed for one of three lessons of the unit implementation in which students utilized and explored technological content or devices (i.e. micro:bit, sensor, block-based coding). Student talk and actions were the focus of the thematic analysis in which researchers used inductive and deductive coding to identify the types of technology-related issues students faced and the strategies they employed to navigate those issues. The major technological issues students experience fit into one of four categories: micro:bit connection, sensor function, coding content, and computer operations. Common strategies students used when navigating these issues include but are not limited to, asking the teacher or group members for help, troubleshooting or debugging using a variety of methods, reviewing resources, and disengaging from the activity. By identifying behaviors like troubleshooting that lead to persistence rather than disengagement, we can create positive learning experiences for students exploring unfamiliar hardware and software-related tools.

While small group learning through engineering design activities has been shown to enhance student achievement, motivation, and problem-solving skills, much of the existing research in this area focuses on undergraduate engineering education. Therefore, this study examines how small-group interactions influence design decisions within a sixth-grade engineering design-based English Language Arts unit for multilingual learners. Multilingual Learners make up 21% of the U.S. school-aged population and benefit from early STEM opportunities that shape future educational and career trajectories. Grounded in constructivist learning theories, the research explores collaborative learning in the engineering design process, using a comparative case study design. Specifically, this study explores student interactions and group dynamics in two small groups (Group A and Group B) engaged in a board game design challenge incorporating microelectronics. Video recordings serve as the primary data source, allowing for an in-depth analysis of verbal and nonverbal interactions. The study employed the Social Interdependence Theory to examine how group members collaborate, negotiate roles, and make design decisions. Themes such as positive interdependence, group accountability, promotive interaction, and individual responsibility are used to assess how cooperation influences final design choices. Three key themes emerged: Roles and Dynamics, Conflict, and Teacher Intervention. Group A and Group B exhibited distinct collaboration patterns, with Group A demonstrating stronger leadership dynamics that shaped decision-making, while Group B encountered challenges related to engagement and resource control. The results demonstrate the importance of small-group interactions in shaping design decisions and emphasize the role of group dynamics and teacher intervention in supporting multilingual learners’ engagement and success in integrated STEM curriculum.

Real-world contexts play a crucial role in engaging students and promoting disciplinary synergy in integrated STEM education. One underexplored pedagogical tool for supporting such integration is the “client letter”—a narrative device used to frame engineering design challenges around authentic, real-world problems. This study investigates the role of client letters in synergizing knowledge within immersive engineering design-based STEM integration curricula. We conducted a qualitative document analysis of 107 client letters embedded in 18 freely available K-12 STEM integration curricular units. Using a theoretical framework that aligns immersive education principles with the STEM Integration Framework, we analyzed how these letters support curricular progression, knowledge building, and student engagement. Findings show that client letters structure and scaffold learning through messaging themes that align with the engineering design process (e.g., problem framing, scoping, and design detailing) and support immersive learning through narrative features such as motivation triggers, dramatic structure, and involvement of the self. Based on these findings, we present the Conceptual Framework for Client Letter Development, which categorizes the instructional and narrative functions of client letters. This framework offers practical guidance for educators and curriculum developers seeking to design immersive, integrative STEM learning experiences.

Within the field of K-2 CS education, unplugged computational thinking (CT) activities have been suggested as beneficial for younger students and shown to impact young students’ skills and motivation to learn about CS. This study sought to examine how children demonstrate CT competencies in unplugged sequencing tasks and how children use manipulatives to solve unplugged sequencing tasks. This case study approach examined two unplugged sequencing tasks for six children ranging from ages four to seven (pre-kindergarten to 2nd grade). Children showed evidence of several CT competencies during the sequencing tasks: (1) pattern recognition, (2) algorithms and procedures, (3) problem decomposition, and (4) debugging. The strategies and use of manipulatives to showcase CT competencies seemed to evolve in complexity based on age and developmental levels. Taking into account children’s abilities to demonstrate CT competencies, this study suggests that sequencing is a developmentally appropriate entry point for young children to begin engaging in other CT competencies. In addition, these unplugged sequencing tasks can also be easily integrated into other activities commonly experienced in early childhood classrooms.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a worldwide synthetic biology event where pre-college and college students design, build and test biological systems to address societal needs. Designing a biological system requires a good development of engineering systems thinking, especially due to living organisms' complex behavior. According to the Capacity for Engineering Systems Thinking (CEST) model, good systems thinkers need to understand the whole system and the interconnection of its parts, consider non-engineering factors, and understand analogies and parallelisms between systems, among other cognitive competencies. For this study, we are interested in analyzing how iGEM participants exhibit cognitive competencies. Particularly, we aim to answer the research question: What evidence of cognitive competencies within engineering systems thinking exists when multidisciplinary teams design a biological system to address a societal need? We followed a Qualitative Descriptive Research approach to analyze the artifacts (team's wikis) of six teams from different countries. All teams were comprised mostly of undergraduate engineering students from multiple disciplines and recognized for their designed biological system's quality. For this work in progress, we shared our initial framework to explore the systems thinking cognitive competencies of iGEM participants, open coded the content of one of the wikis, and presented some preliminary evidence of the competencies. Through continuing research, we will further explore systems thinking in biological systems design by analyzing the remainder of the six teams' wikis.

The design of biological systems is a multidisciplinary activity in which biomedical engineers collaborate to build novel biological systems that address society’s needs. One of the most relevant skills for designing biological systems is engineering systems thinking (EST). Among the EST elements, the EST cognitive competencies are comparatively less explored. Particularly, there is a lack of understanding of how undergraduate engineering students manifest EST cognitive competencies in synthetic biology so instructors and curriculum designers can better scaffold students’ learning. In this study, we contribute to that gap by addressing the question: To what extent do multidisciplinary undergraduate teams exhibit EST cognitive competencies when designing a biological system to address societal needs?. We followed a Qualitative Descriptive Research approach to analyze the EST cognitive competencies of five teams who successfully framed a problem and developed a functional biological system as part of their participation in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition. We coded the publicly available teams’ wikis where they registered their design process using the Capacity for Engineering Systems Thinking (CEST) model and procedures from document analysis. The wikis included evidence of seven of the ten EST cognitive competencies from the CEST model. The studied undergraduate participants framed complex problems, designed systems that typically included various subsystems (e.g., biological, mechanical, electrical) and integrated multiple disciplinary concepts and tools. The participants used various approaches to handle the interconnection and synergistic properties of the elements in their biological systems, such as representing their systems at different levels of detail. Competition judges and advisor can support their teams’ EST using our findings. Furthermore, we propose a framework to explore the EST cognitive competencies of undergraduate students in the context of biological synthetic design and suggest how instructors and other interested readers may use our findings to develop learning environments that promote EST.

With the current shortage of employees entering the microelectronics workforce, the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is faced with the growing challenge of where to obtain qualified workers. The challenge for engineering educators is how best to educate and train a workforce for the DIB's specific technical and professional skill requirements to meet the growing demand for technicians and engineers in microelectronics. As workforce development programs grow and expand in the engineering education space, there is a need to ensure that students are developing both technical and professional skills. The purpose of this Work in Progress Paper is to describe the initial development of a certification framework for students in a microelectronics engineering program. The primary goals of developing the framework are that it be straightforward to use by faculty and students at any university and easily transferable to other domains. The research questions for this paper are: (1) what are the high-level technical and professional knowledge, skills, and abilities that students in a microelectronics workforce development program need to be certified? (2) What are the overall framework components for certification, and what is the supporting literature? (3) What is a current example of the framework applied to professional skills for undergraduate students, and what are the next steps for technical skills? This paper includes detailed examples of the framework and supporting literature for professional skills (i.e., teamwork, lifelong learning), and how technical skills (i.e., Radiation Hardened Technologies) areas are developed.

This study investigates the integration of computational thinking (CT) into early elementary literacy, focusing on kindergarten to second grade students, using multiple representations to understand their ideas of CT. Through clinical task-based interviews with 12 students, we found that concrete manipulatives, pictorial/graphical representations, and language-based strategies were key to facilitating CT comprehension. The findings indicate no significant gender differences in CT engagement, and instead we need to emphasize the need for inclusive, multi-representational teaching methods in early education. By using multiple representations, we may be able to nurture early STEM interest and confidence in computer science and related fields.

This chapter overviews the instructional strategies used in the STEM Road Map series. Starting with a brief explanation of project-and problem-based learning, the chapter outlines the role of the engineering design process, the 5E learning cycle used to design curriculum module content, and the role of STEM Research Notebooks in the curriculum modules. The chapter also provides information about the comprehensive assessment system incorporated into the series, including embedded formative assessments and assessment maps. Self-regulated learning (SRL) and the role of the SRL cycle in student learning in the STEM Road Map series is overviewed, and the chapter concludes with a brief overview of student safety and recommendations for approaches to safety in STEM and safety practices.

Big data analytics has grown as a valuable tool for professionals from different fields to get insights from large volumes of data and make data-driven decisions. Given this, engineering students need access to learning environments that support learning data analytics. These activities should teach students the skills to assess data, design high-quality questions, perform data analysis, and provide recommendations in a manner that is aligned with client needs. To this end, we developed and implemented the data analytics activity called "The Bike-share problem " for a First-Year Engineering (FYE) design and modeling course. To analyze the students' ideation of questions and recommendations when working on the activity, our summarized research question is: What are the characteristics of FYE students' proposed questions and recommendations for a client as part of their data analytics project? We analyzed questions and recommendations from teams' final reports using qualitative content analysis. Our findings show that the students' questions ranged from superficial treatments of the data that required simple analyses to deep explorations of the problem that required more complex analyses. For the recommendations, we found that model responses include considerable detail, support with data, and justification based on the client needs. While both the questions and the recommendations were important separately, we also found differences among teams' ability to align their recommendations to the client with the actual questions they were trying to answer. The differences in student responses to the activity can have many explanations as to the cause; however, we have evidence that perhaps scaffolding in the way the activity is posed and team dynamics may have affected how students responded to the activity. Finally, we provide some effective practices that interested readers may implement to design analytics activities that promote students' ideation.

Background: Introductory design projects are an influential and important time to introduce students to engineering in authentic and engaging ways in order to prepare students for their future academic and professional careers. Instructors must be able to scaffold their students to reach more advanced design skills. However, the most effective ways to do this, specifically how instructors use their talk with students, are not well understood. Purpose: We aim to address the research question: How do instructors interact with students and use their talk as a tool to scaffold undergraduate students’ learning during their work on engineering design projects in introductory engineering courses? Design: We employed a multiple case study approach to examine the content of three professors’ talk during introductory engineering design projects, guided by a theoretical framework based on the components of scaffolding. Results: The professors took on a role as a guide or mentor to students during their projects, with differing goals for their mentoring. In light of the introductory nature of the design projects, the professors focused primarily on non-technical content, including iteration in design, teaming, and communication, but pointed to technical applications of their ideas in future projects. They supported some challenges for beginning designers but were not comprehensive in their support of others. Conclusions: The professors in this study are experienced engineers and teachers with valuable experience. They used their experience to act as more knowledgeable others to mentor students and excite them about their engineering careers. However, there were some disconnects between the professors’ values in design and their talk with students, such as in learning from failure and problem scoping. These findings support the need for support for instructors, specifically in how to more closely align their talk with their teaching goals.

This study aimed to develop a K-12 classroom observation protocol to assess K-12 teachers' implementation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integration. The intended purpose of the observation protocol is for researchers to examine how K-12 teachers implement the STEM integrated curriculum. Based on research on STEM integration, the protocol covers eight categories: Define, Learn, Plan, Try, Test, Decide, Improve, and Instructional Strategies. The protocol was reviewed by a panel of integrated STEM education experts, engineering design experts, and educational assessment experts (n = 15) and revised accordingly. To test the reliability of using the protocol, two raters applied the protocol to videos of 12 lower-level elementary teachers located at seven schools who implemented an integrated STEM curriculum over a total of 196 class periods. The inter-rater reliability Gwet AC1 coefficient was 0.73. The inter-rater reliability of each category's coding was also calculated and reported. We discuss the implications and limitations of the protocol.

Students can begin to lose interest in CS as early as 2nd grade, indicating the importance of engaging students in CS as early as possible. This study examined the integration of computational thinking (CT) into literacy activities in early childhood education (K-2). We describe the co-design process of developing computational thinking literacy integrated curriculum for K-2, and preliminary results of K-2 student engagement in CT and literacy activities

This chapter provides an overview of the approach to the STEM Road Map curriculum series. The chapter briefly reviews the research base used to frame the integrated STEM approach, which uses problem- and project-based learning to engage students in authentic learning experiences aligned with national standards including the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts, and the Framework for 21st Century Learning. The chapter also offers an overview of the five real-world themes around which the STEM Road Map curricular modules are organized: Cause and Effect, Innovation and Progress, The Represented World, Sustainable Systems, and Optimizing the Human Experience.

Abstract Recent U.S. national documents have laid the foundation for highlighting the connection between science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the K-12 level. However, there is not a clear definition or a well-established tradition of what constitutes a quality engineering education at the K-12 level. The purpose of the current work has been the development of a framework for describing what constitutes a quality K-12 engineering education. The framework presented in this paper is the result of a research project focused on understanding and identifying the ways in which teachers and schools implement engineering and engineering design in their classrooms. The development of the key indicators that are included in the framework were determined based on an extensive review of the literature, established criteria for undergraduate and professional organizations, document content analysis of state academic content standards in science, mathematics, and technology, and in consultation with experts in the fields of engineering and engineering education. The framework is designed to be used as a tool for evaluating the degree to which academic standards, curricula, and teaching practices address the important components of a quality K-12 engineering education. Additionally, this framework can be used to inform the development and structure of future K-12 engineering and STEM education standards and initiatives. Abstract Recent U.S. national documents have laid the foundation for highlighting the connection between science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the K-12 level. However, there is not a clear definition or a well-established tradition of what constitutes a quality engineering education at the K-12 level. The purpose of the current work has been the development of a framework for describing what constitutes a quality K-12 engineering education. The framework presented in this paper is the result of a research project focused on understanding and identifying the ways in which teachers and schools implement engineering and engineering design in their classrooms. The development of the key indicators that are included in the framework were determined based on an extensive review of the literature, established criteria for undergraduate and professional organizations, document content analysis of state academic content standards in science, mathematics, and technology, and in consultation with experts in the fields of engineering and engineering education. The framework is designed to be used as a tool for evaluating the degree to which academic standards, curricula, and teaching practices address the important components of a quality K-12 engineering education. Additionally, this framework can be used to inform the development and structure of future K-12 engineering and STEM education standards and initiatives.

Students can begin to lose interest in CS as early as 2nd grade, indicating the importance of engaging students in CS as early as possible. This study examined the integration of computational thinking (CT) into literacy activities in early childhood education (K-2). We describe the co-design process of developing computational thinking literacy integrated curriculum for K-2, and preliminary results of K-2 student engagement in CT and literacy activities