Just in time for summer camp, EiE’s Engineering Everywhere curriculum has two new hands-on curriculum units designed for middle school-aged engineers:

• “It’s About Time” poses a mechanical engineering challenge: Design your own timekeeping device
• “Plants to Plastics” is a chemical engineering challenge: Make plastic from ecofriendly plant-based materials 

The June 2015 online issue of Educational Leadership explores the theme “Improving Schools from Within.” The magazine invited educators to share stories of schools that changed for the better—and how they did it. 

Emily Hardee, a North Carolina STEM coordinator, tells the story of a Raleigh elementary school that transformed itself from one of the lowest performing schools in the district into a STEM school that’s a model for the state. We’re gratified to know that the Engineering is Elementary curriculum played a part in the change.

When the Engineering is Elementary curriculum was first being developed, one skeptic told EiE director Christine Cunningham, “You’re crazy. It’s impossible to teach engineering to elementary students!” Today, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have made K - 5 engineering mainstream. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is thinking about even younger engineers.

The President has made early childhood education a priority, including—at the urging of the National Science Board—early STEM education. But what does “quality Pre-K - K STEM education” look like? And how do you help teachers expand early STEM education nationwide? EiE’s director, Christine Cunningham, is one of 14 educators pondering such questions as part of the Early Childhood STEM Working Group, meeting this week in Chicago. 

Engineering is Elementary has a large online library of Classroom Videos—nearly 200 in all.

These ~10-minute videos are intended to be a resource for elementary teachers who use the EiE curriculum. But they’re also a useful resource for college educators who work with preservice teachers.

Elementary teachers have to be ready to teach lots of different subjects, including science and (with the growing influence of the Next Generation Science Standards) engineering. 

But most preservice elementary teachers take only a few science courses—and rarely any engineering. “Many students come to me with what I call ‘science baggage,’” says Leanne Avery, a science education professor at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. “They’re fearful of science. And if you mention engineering, they’re ready to run out the door!”