UPenn psychologist Angela Duckworth launched a media frenzy with her 2013 TED Talk on “grit.” This trait, she asserted, is essential for school success; students who have grit stay motivated in the face of adversity and even outright failure.

This month on the EiE Blog we’re sharing candid videos from elementary classrooms that show how early experience with engineering helps students develop “engineering habits of mind,” or ways of thinking that can be the foundation for lifelong learning. Today we focus on a habit of mind that some sociologists call “agency.”

For the next several weeks, the EiE Blog will explore a set of skills called “engineering habits of mind.” This phrase comes from a landmark report released by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2009 that laid out guiding principles for how engineering should be taught in grades K through 12.

In 2006, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC) convened a special committee to explore the question, “How should K-12 engineering be taught?” The committee’s report, released in 2009, laid out a vision based on three principles. One was that to be effective, classroom engineering activities should help students develop engineering “habits of mind.”