2014; Lewis 2005). Furthermore, students were afforded
opportunities to test their design and reflect on their
launch technique as well as make changes that could
optimize flight time. Such a problem was structured to engage
students in the process of design related to a context
rather than simply involve students in the design process
through a procedural manner, where students may remain
disconnected with the overall principles and concepts
underpinning the problem solution (Bursic and Atman
1997; Daly et al. 2012; Watkins et al. 2014).
Methods
Participants
Schools
Five Queensland (Australia) schools, two private and
three non-private (state), participated in the first year
(fourth grade) of this 3-year longitudinal study. We
chose to commence our work with fourth-grade classes
given that our prior work with students in grades 7–9
(e.g., English, Hudson, & Dawes, 2013) indicated that
the processes of engineering design required long-term
development and that this development needed to commence
in the earlier grades. Both private and state
schools were chosen as we were committed to introducing
engineering education into both education sectors,
where interest in STEM education is just emerging. Further,
all schools indicated a keenness for their students
to engage in these new learning experiences. Seven classes
and their teachers completed the first year of activities,
three from large private schools and the remainder
from smaller state schools. We focus in this article on
the three private school classes (N = 63; mean age =
9 years 8 months), given that their school timetabling
and the students’ greater fluency with the English language
enabled more comprehensive data to be obtained.
Teachers
The learning experiences, which built on the teachers’
existing mathematics, science, and technology curricula,
were new to the teachers and their students. The teachers’
involvement in the experiences across the study included
regular briefing and debriefing meetings, before and after
each problem implementation. We studied the teachers’
mathematics, science, and technology programs, discussed
the planning and implementation of activities that targeted
core curricula goals and themes, reviewed the students’
progress, and prepared subsequent activities taking
into account the teachers’ feedback and students’ developments
in the previous experiences. It was explained to the
teachers that their direct intervention in the students’
group work was not desirable. Learning was only facilitated
where necessary, such as responding to a student’s
query by posing a thought-provoking question in return.