Abstract
Kentucky Electronics Education Project (KEEP) uses microelectronics to connect real world content to K-12 science education. KEEP trains teachers in a series of circuit building activities through summer workshops and in-service professional development. Teachers are expected to implement components of their training into their curriculum, and then participating students are asked to evaluate their experience. Here, survey responses of 61 Midwest high school students, who completed a circuit building activity in the classroom setting, are analyzed using a Rasch rating scale model. Insights are provided regarding the inquiry based, hands-on engineering activity, while introducing a tool for program evaluation. Results characterize students' perceptions regarding difficulty of the project and potential misunderstandings. Suggestions for project enhancement, based on empirical evidence and practical experience, are described.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 618-625 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Science Education and Technology |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2008 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Given the dynamic implementation, it is critical to obtain feedback from teachers and students so that evaluation of the project and tools is ongoing, using the information to improve this pioneer project. KEEP was initiated in 1997 with the support of the educational outreach aspects of two National Science Foundation research grants (Lumpp and Bradley 2003). Realizing the strength of the project was tied to its interdisciplinary approach, coupled with the need to create a reliable and valid evaluation of KEEP, the project became a collaborative research and service effort between faculty in the College of Education and Engineering in 2002.
Keywords
- Circuit building
- Engineering
- Program evaluation
- Rasch model
- Science education
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- General Engineering