Incorporating Technology and Engineering Literacy into the 4th through 8th Grade Educational Experience

This capstone project addresses the lack of technology and engineering literacy education at the elementary and middle school levels. The purpose of this capstone project is to help educators at schools without a STEM focus improve the technology and engineering literacy of their 4th through 8th grade students. The project was designed to create a series of practical and engaging professional development sessions tailored to educators with limited time and resources. To achieve this the existing standards and research were reviewed with a concentration on the ITEEA Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy (STEL), the impact of experiential learning in the educational setting and the personal and social development of students in the 4th through the 8th grades along with the potential impact of Technology and Engineering Education (TEE) on their sense of their future place in society and their future career ambitions. The professional development series delves into the educational, social and economic challenges that impact today’s elementary and middle school-aged children. The professional development series provides the participants with practical, fun and engaging teaching methods for their classrooms that takes into account these challenges, dovetails with the existing STEL standards, and leverages experiential learning techniques. This project demonstrates that in an historical period of great technological change and its outsize impact on the lives of our children where the need for technology and engineering literacy is greater than ever, there is a place for, as well as practical methods available to, educators at schools without a STEM focus and with limited access to resources, to incorporate technology and engineering literacy education into their curriculum.