Earlier this month we announced a landmark: more than 10 million children have engaged in hands-on classroom engineering with EiE! We’re equally excited to mention another landmark: Since 2003, more than 100,000 teachers have taught EiE lessons to their students. To meet the growing demand for EiE professional development (PD), we’re growing a cadre of highly qualified PD providers. These educators learn to facilitate EiE workshops at a special three-day program called the Teacher Educator Institute (TEI).

“Building for You.” That’s the slogan of New York City’s Department of Design and Construction, which builds the civic facilities city dwellers use every day, from cultural institutions to police precincts to roads, sidewalks, and sewer systems. The agency employs hundreds of engineers, and city officials are thinking ahead to the next generation; recently, DDC launched the “Young Engineers” program with the goal of inspiring students to consider careers in the built environment.  At the center of this initiative is a middle-school afterschool program that uses Engineering is Elementary’s “Engineering Everywhere” curriculum.  This short video shows some of the exciting outcomes!

Every Thursday, the blog brings you tips and resources for teaching engineering. Today’s guest blogger is Owen Berliner, a senior curriculum designer with EiE.

We notice that sometimes kids in afterschool just can’t get enough of the topics covered in EiE’s Engineering Adventures (EA) curriculum. Whether it’s planetary science in Liftoff: Engineering Rockets and Rovers, or conservation in Go Green: Engineering Recycled Racers, it helps to have a list of extra resources that can further engage students—and foster deeper understanding of how engineering connects to subjects like science and social studies.

Later this week, educational researchers from around the world will gather in Baltimore . . . not for the famous crab cakes (though those are certainly an attraction), but for a major conference on science teaching and learning. Three presentations will feature the latest research on the Engineering is Elementary curriculum.

This meeting, held April 14–17, is the 2016 Annual International Conference of NARST, a professional organization formerly known as the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. This year the conference theme is “Equity and Justice: Many Different Voices, Cultures, and Languages in Science Education Research for Quality Science Learning and Teaching.”

This engineering teacher tip is for educators who use Engineering Adventures, our curriculum for learners in grades 3-5 in out-of-school settings like afterschool and camp—specifically the unit Shake Things Up: Engineering Earthquake-Resistant Buildings. This unit introduces kids to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010; the challenge is to engineer a model building that can withstand a quake.