Assessing Engineering Teaching Kits For Middle School Students

Abstract

At the University of Virginia (UVA), we have been developing engineering teaching kits (ETKs) to introduce engineering design to middle school students. This paper describes our strategies for assessing these ETKs and evaluating our entire program. So far, we have three sources of assessment information: classroom observations, teachers' reactions to these materials including their willingness to use ETKs, and formal assessments conducted during a teachers' workshop held at the University of Virginia in August of 2003. This paper reports the results of these assessments, and their implications for our continued work in this area.

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