Integrating engineering in middle and high school classrooms

This paper introduces a model that has been successful for introducing engineering concepts and activities into middle and high school courses. Science, mathematics, and technology teachers participating in the Pre-College Engineering for Teachers (PCET) professional development project attended a two-week summer institute focused on engineering concepts and the engineering design process. As the final project for the Institute, teachers each modified a unit or lesson that they had previously taught to include engineering concepts. The extremely high rate of implementation of these modified lesson or units in the classroom by the teachers the following school year, the integration of engineering design into additional lessons, and the continued inclusion of these units and engineering in subsequent years demonstrate that this approach to including engineering in middle and high school classrooms is successful.