K-12 Engineering Education Programs

I've met Celeste Baine a couple of times. She's a great person and a great advocate for engineering education. From her blog, here's a list of the top 10 11 K-12 Engineering Education programs (I've re-posted the top four). I'm familiar with Project Lead the Way and the Infinity Project. Both have developed really rich, engaging pre-engineering programs. If you have any influence with your local school board or K-12 educators, your community and kids would be well-served by one of these programs. Celeste Baine's Blog about Marketing Engineering Education

the top 11 K-12 Engineering Education Programs

Almost every time I present at a conference or attend an engineering event, a school district administrator or teacher asks me what engineering programs or curriculum are available. Usually, this person is charged with the responsibility of implementing a standards-based engineering academy or program in their school or district. They invariably want something easy, proven and engaging for the teachers and students.

If you want to know what is going on in engineering education around the United States, this list is for you. However, it's not all-inclusive. These are just a few of the more popular approaches to implementing engineering at the K-12 level.

1. Engineering the Future (EtF): Science, Technology, and the Design Process (www.keypress.com/etf) is a laboratory course for the first year of high school science, created to help a broad spectrum of students. EtF is a full-year lab course organized around four projects, each of which is divided into several tasks. The entire course can be implemented on a modest budget.

2. Engineering is Elementary - This project develops curricular materials in engineering and technology education for children in grades K-5 (www.mos.org). Educator support includes lesson plans, assessment materials, and professional development programs that tie into other major content areas, including science and language arts.

3. Project Lead the Way (PLTW) - is a non-profit organization that promotes engineering courses for middle (Gateway to Technology) and high school (Pathway to Engineering) students. The program formally partners with school districts, trains the instructors that will be teaching and implementing the curriculum, and acts as a bridge between educational institutions and private businesses. (www.pltw.org)

4. The Infinity Project is a national high school and early college math- and science-based engineering and technology education initiative that helps educators deliver a maximum of engineering exposure with a minimum of training, expense and time. Created to help students see the real value of math and science and its varied applications to high tech engineering. (www.infinity-project.org)